White
by Sparkz1607
Summary: /Follow-up to Mythical/ Tails has been growing more tails over the years... Now he has 8... What about his 18th birthday, and his 9th tail? Will he keep his sanity on that fateful day, or will his growing "Magical" energy corrupt his mind, body and soul?
1. Chapter 1

Hey! Sparkz1607 here, with the first chapter of White. It took a LONG time to write. :U Sorry this took so long, I had writer's block. Oh, and it's really long. :D Or at least on my size 10 computer it is. I think it's like, size 12 on , so I bet it's even longer! :D

**NOTE: **I might make a spin-off to this series that takes place in the Naruto-verse. The Kyuubi is going to be Tails (Lol) but older, and he's going to tell that blonde ninja his backstory and how he got there. xD

White is a follow-up to a story on my previous account, Crysal1010, that I was GOING to abandon, but decided to continue it. :D Since I can't transfer stories or anything, I made a new story for my new account, and renamed it. :)

_**If you haven't Mythical yet, go read it, or you won't get the plot. I warn you: It's a little weird, but there are some people that like this kind of stuff. Well, you don't HAVE to read it, you can just read the summary below and try to catch on.**_

For those too lazy to go read Mythical, I'll give a quick summary of the entire series:

_Tails grew a third tail at 12 years old. It freaked him out, and he spent the next few weeks hiding it from his friends. But then Sonic convinced him otherwise, and he revealed himself to everyone. They accepted him, and __**MAJOR TIMESKIP OLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!1!one!1! **__Well, we come back five years later, when he's 17 going on 18, and already has eight tails. His fur has been growing paler over the years, at the time being something of a light orange-silver. He starts getting this weird energy that manifests itself in his tails, which he can utilize to use magical powers, and all he really knows how to do is use the ones that are destructive and might be useful in battle. Since his tails are the containers for the energy, he can use them to judge how much he has left. Well, he's freaked out once more, fearing he might lose his mind once he gets his ninth tail on his 18th birthday, which is in seven days from the beginning of Mythical, and his friends are trying to keep his mental stability intact._

_What happened right before this: Sonic invites Tails, Knuckles, and Amy over for Twister (Ololololol), during which no one is wearing any clothes except for Amy's bra and panties, and Tails brings in alcoholic drinks. He pours himself a glass, and is about to take a sip, when Sonic stops him, reminding him that he is too young, but the REAL reason he doesn't want him drinking it is because he fears that Tails might lose control of his powers while under the influence of alcohol and unable to think rationally. That's when I cut it off.... D: Well, SOMETHING happened between those two points, and here is the other end._

Heh.

WARNING: This story contains suggestive themes and dirty thoughts.

13+

Enjoy! :D

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic, Blah blah blah...**

**This story is very inappropriate at times. If you are under 13, leave now.**

**But if you're THAT dedicated, then go ahead. xD I need more readers.**

**Enjoy~!**

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**White**

**Chapter 1**

**By Sparkz**

**WAAAAAAKE UP STATION SQUARE, THIS IS OMNI-WOLF TELLING YOU THAT IT IS **_**FINALLY**_** SUNDAY! TIME TO WAKE UP, GO OUTSIDE WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND PLAY SOME FOOTBALL! YEAH, THROW THAT PIGSKIN BETWEEN THOSE TWO TREES IN SUPERIORITY PARK AND THEN TRY TO CONVINCE THEM THAT IT'S A FIELD GOAL AND NOT CHEATING! HAH HAH!...**

The vulpine's eyes slowly creaked open at the radio announcer's annoyingly peppy voice, groaning at the fact that he was forced to wake up earlier than usual. As his vision came into focus, he saw Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by bottles of liquor and other trash......What the _hell _ happened last night? He couldn't remember a thing! He assumed it would be rather uncomfortable to sleep on the floor like that, especially since everyone else had quills. Well, at least he had a pillow... A really big, warm and furry pillow... Wait a minute... He raised himself slightly, and saw that he was curled up sideways on the floor, his head resting on his tails. W-wait, he hasn't done this since his was little! He actually found it embarrassing to do it now, for fear that others will laugh at his immaturity... But... It was so comfortable... So warm and relaxing... It... It wasn't _all_ that bad...Right?... He slowly raised himself from the floor, his eight tails uncurling from their position on the floor, and pressed a button on the side of the alarm, turning it off. Thank god he was the first one to wake up. If anyone saw him curled up like that... He couldn't even _imagine _what would happen. He stepped on a beer bottle, and it rolled out from under him, causing him to fall backwards with a yelp.

"Huh?...What?" He heard Sonic mutter, still groggy from sleep, before the hedgehog quickly picked himself up off the floor, swaying back and forth from the sudden movement. "What's going on?" He looked at all the liquor canisters covering the floor, before raising an eyebrow. "Woah... What happened? Tails, were you drinking?"

"Well... It was _your _idea, Sonic!" Tails said, getting up and dusting off his light orange fur.

"_My _idea? No way, I spess... Specif... Specifically remember telling you that you were too young!" The hedgehog was having pronunciation troubles due to not being fully awake yet. His eyelids were still drooping, and you could easily tell that he was still sleepy.

"Yeah, but then fifteen minutes later, you drank half a gallon of beer and then told me to 'Come have some'." He said, making air quotes to help accentuate his point. The hedgehog looked shocked.

"What?! No I didn't! And even if I did, I-I was drunk! You _know _you can't trust anyone when they're drunk!" Sonic was right, he really _couldn't _be trusted when he was wasted like that. He once asked the fox to... Uh... _Play with himself _in front of everyone when they went to a bar just a few weeks ago. This embarrassed him to no end, and he snarled angrily at the hedgehog, making him curl up into a spiky blue ball in fear. This was remarkably easy for the vulpine, since his snarling and growling sounded extremely menacing due to that strange power coursing through his body. It was echo-ey and demonic sounding, you know?

"Looks like we had... Quite the party last night..." Tails assumed, based on all the bottles of beer and other trash lying around. You know how it is; when people are drunk, nobody really remembers anything, just that they wake up in a pile of trash and bottles next to everyone else. Sonic tapped Knuckles lightly on the head with an empty bottle.

"Hey, Knux... You awake yet?" The cobalt hedgehog whispered, rather close to Knuckles's ear. The scarlet echidna groaned in approval, his eyes opening just a slit.

"What happened?..." The echidna murmured, barely moving his lips. This was surprising, since the echidna would usually give a "Morning punch" to Sonic when he woke him by tapping him on the head with something. Tails guessed he was just too tired from what happened last night... Apparently they all passed out from drinking so much. Along with the trash on the floor, there was also... Amy's bra? The kitsune picked up the pink athletic support with his thumb and index finger, not really wanting to touch it. Wait, if Amy wasn't wearing her bra...

"Oh dear god." The off-white fox announced in shock, dropping the bra. Apparently Sonic and Amy had a drunk love affair... A really, REALLY dirty drunk love affair. And Amy was still half naked.

"What is it, little buddy?" Sonic asked, eyeing the bra on the floor. After a few seconds, his jaw dropped, realizing what happened. "Holy shit..." He whispered, his eyes drifting over to Amy, who was lying face down on the floor. You could actually see the side of her breasts, which explains why Sonic was staring at her like a starved dog. Tails chuckled at the hedgehog's immaturity, and picked up Amy's bra again.

"Sonic, put this back on her before she wakes up..." The eight-tailed vulpine said quietly as to not disturb Amy. If she wakes up and sees her bra off, whoever is holding it will probably be perceived as a pervert, and take a dent in their relationship with her. Sonic nodded, and quietly walked over to the pink hedgehog, before turning her on her side, exposing her... Uh... You know. The cobalt hedgehog choked on his own breath on sight of her chest. "Sonic... Don't look at them, just put it on!" The hedgehog closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to clear his mind of his perverted thoughts. He placed the athletic support on her chest, then wrapped it around and attempted to hook it, but they slipped out of his hands and fell to the ground. Amy started to stir and groan, and since Sonic becomes uncoordinated under pressure, he was unable to get it hooked before Amy woke up.

"...Who's there?..." She mumbled, her eyes opening slightly. Her innocent jade eyes floated over to where Sonic was sitting, and she mumbled something incoherently. Sonic finally hooked it together, and he sped back to Tails, putting on such an innocent grin that you could almost see a halo floating above his head. Amy eventually lifted herself off the ground, and looked at the two brothers, confused. "Sonic?... Why were you so close to me?..." The sakura hedgehog inquired, dusting off her stomach. Sonic choked again, blushing.

"Woah, I mean LOOK at all these beer bottles! Did we get totally wasted last night or what? Heh heh!" Tails interjected, changing the subject. He put his muzzle to Sonic's ear. "You owe me..." He whispered, and Sonic nodded in response.

Tails suddenly began losing his focus, and struggled to keep his attention at Amy. Ugh... What was happening?... He couldn't think straight..... . . . . . . . . . .

_

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_

_**FLASHBACK**_

_Sonic took another drink from his glass, his cheeks cherry-red, alcohol swimming through his blood. "C'mon little buddeh~!... Come'n have a drink an' join the party~! And then you can blow something up for us! Hah hah!" He shouted, shoving a mug of beer into the young fox's chest._

_"I'll pound yer face in if ya' don't, ya eight-tailed freak! Heh..." Knuckles joked, just as drunk as Sonic was. Tails folded his ears, largely offended by the comment the echidna made. Knuckles made a drinking motion with his hand._

_"But Sonic, you __**just **__told me that I was too young! And what do you mean 'blow something up' for you?" The white kitsune pointed out, but it was obvious that the cobalt hedgehog wasn't listening. He was too drunk._

_"Hell, why would I say that?... Hoohahah!... Beer is GOOD for ya' Tails! Just take'a swig!..." The hedgehog persisted, drinking from his own glass as well. ...Well, since high alchohol content often reveals one's true feelings, if drunk Sonic said it was okay, then it couldn't be __**that **__bad... Tails slowly brought the glass to his lips, and took a big drink._

_"Woah, guys... I feel..." He said, losing his balance. Knuckles stepped forward and shoved the glass to the fox's lips once more, and.... . . . . . . . . . . . _

_**END FLASHBACK**_

_

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_

"Tails?..."

"Tails??..."

"Tails! Are you okay?" The cobalt hedgehog said, snapping the fox out of his trance.

"...Uh... Oh, yeah, I'm fine..." He said, putting a hand on his head. That was weird... He usually _never _has flashbacks, so why now? He stepped on another bottle and almost fell down because of it, reminding him of how messy the room was. "L...Let's clean up this trash..."

Everyone got a few trash bags from the utility room and started collecting trash and bottles from off the floor, and with all four of them helping, it wasn't long before the floor in the living room was spotless. The kitsune figured there was probably some trash in the front yard as well, since they most likely did a **lot **of things while intoxicated, so he opened the front door and walked outside. And just as he had thought, the front yard was dotted with trash as well. He started with the bushes, picking several plastic cups, drinking glasses, and bottles out of the leafy green hedges, before he felt a small hand lay on his back.

"Excuse me, mister?" A small voice inquired behind him. The kitsune turned around to see a small brown fox, probably only 3 or 4 years old. The young mammal looked up at him curiously, hugging the teddy bear he was carrying in his small arms.

"Hey little guy..." The white kitsune said softly, a warm smile on his face. He kneeled down to see eye-to-eye with the little brown fox, and patted it's head. "What's up?"

"Wh...Why do you have so many tails?..." The chocolate brown fox asked, bringing his teddy bear up to cover his muzzle, his violet eyes glowing with childish innocence. The silver-orange kitsune's smile vanished as quickly as it had come, deeply offended by the question. If anyone around his age asked that, he would have yelled at them angrily, but this was just a child... He probably couldn't help but ask. Children were just curious, and you can't really do much about it.

"...It...It's because I'm different." The white vulpine said sadly, looking into the little fox's eyes. "I can't do anything about it..." The brown fox walked around the kitsune to get a look at his tails, before lowering his teddy bear and smiling in that ultra-cute way that little kids do.

"But... I think you're kinda cool!..." The kitsune's warm smile returned, and he looked over his shoulder at the little fox, who was now sweetly hugging one of his tails. Wow, this was the first time someone didn't avoid him because of his extra appendages... Maybe being a kitsune isn't such a bad thing... He wrapped his other tails around the small brown fox and hoisted him up in the air, causing him to start laughing. "S-Stop! It tickles!" He said, roaring with laughter at the white kitsune's persistent brushing. He began laughing himself at the ridiculousness of the situation, bringing his tails, and the smaller fox, around in front of him. The little fox was laughing and squirming so hard that tears were coming out of his eyes, a display so irresistibly cute that one couldn't help but laugh in unison. He heard the door open behind him, and a single footstep as someone peeked out at the two foxes.

"What'cha doing, little buddy?" He heard Sonic say, and he stopped laughing, slightly embarrassed. He looked at Sonic, who was suffering from MAJOR cowlick syndrome, and then at the smaller fox sitting on his tails, before looking at Sonic again. He grinned sheepishly, and the cobalt hedgehog chuckled before disappearing through the doorway. Tails quickly let the smaller fox down, and the little one walked over to a scooter, before climbing on and rolling away. The door to the house opened once more, and Sonic backed out, followed by Knuckles and Amy, who were grinning happily. He looked at the fox, before groaning, unsatisfied.

"Aw c'mon Tails, that was cute! Why'd you let him down?" The cobalt hedgehog said, pulling a camera out of seemingly nowhere and waving it back and forth. "I was gonna take a picture, too..." Tails chuckled, and continued cleaning the trash out of the bushes, as the others soon joined in. When the yard was picked clean of foreign objects, Knuckles took a seat.... On the kitsune's tails. He quickly whipped his head around to look at the scarlet echidna, blushing furiously out of embarrassment.

"...What?" The red echidna inquired, as if there was nothing odd about what he was doing. Tails had absolutely no trouble holding the echidna, since his appendages were very strong from all the exercise he's given them over the years. In fact, he could probably catapult the echidna to the other side of the house if he wanted to. But even so, it was still embarrassing to have someone draw attention to his tails like that. Sonic and Amy were both gawking at him, along with a few passerbyers.

"C-can you g-get off please?" Tails requested, and the Echidna apologized and stepped down. The kitsune felt violated. Why did Knuckles do that? His eight appendages laid flat on the ground, signifying that his feelings were crushed. The echidna laid a hand on his furred shoulder, an apologetic expression on his face.

"Look Tails, I-I'm sorry..." He stuttered, trying to mend the kitsune's feelings. It wasn't working, and he shook Knuckles's hand away, still embarrassed. Sonic floated behind the kitsune and grabbed his appendages, trying to lift them in attempt to lift his spirits through a ridiculous playful action, but he couldn't make them budge. Tails almost chuckled; after all this time, you would expect the hedgehog to know that the vulpine's tails were too heavy for him to lift. First of all, the hedgehog could run fast, but had absolutely no upper body strength, since he never uses his arms or anything. Second, his tails were _huge, _and weighed about 25 pounds each. That adds up to 200 pounds for all of them, which the hedgehog was trying in vain to lift, amusingly tugging at them. The only person person that could lift them was Knuckles, and he had embarrassed the kitsune too much to even try, so he simply stayed back. Tails used one of his namesakes to push Sonic away, before walking back inside the house and sitting on the red velvet couch. Sonic soon joined him, and sat down softly as to not disturb him. The cobalt hedgehog was no doubt trying to cheer him up, as he always had when the kitsune was feeling down. The hedgehog stroked one of the kitsune's tails, and the vulpine shot a "What are you doing?" look at him, but he paid no mind to it, brushing his gloveless palm against the white fur of the fox's rear appendage. It actually felt kind of pleasant to have someone stroke his tails, even if it was a little embarrassing. I mean, no one else is around... It doesn't really matter, does it? He suddenly found himself purring absent-mindedly, and stopped himself at once, trying to seem more mature for his age. Sonic chuckled playfully, knowing that the kitsune's natural response to positive stimulation was purring like a cat, as it has been since his childhood. This was rather strange, since normal foxes can't purr, but Tails has an abnormality that enables his vocal cords to make a rumbling sound, much like a cat's purring. It reminded the blue hedgehog of how the timid fox had a lower voice than he did, and he started to feel a little jealous, but quickly shook it off. The kitsune's tails began to flutter, since he was happy, and they were rubbing the hedgehog's face, tickling his muzzle.

"Ah... Ha-ha!! S-Stop it Tails! That tickles!" The hedgehog laughed, trying to push the vulpine's numerous tails away from his face, but two limbs had trouble restraining eight. Sonic flailed, laughing uncontrollably, before a few, heavy footsteps were heard. The timid fox paid no mind to the footsteps, and continued fluttering his tails, before he turned his head to see Knuckles hovering over him and Sonic, a curious look on his face. He felt another pang of shyness, but he decided to try and ignore it this time, since he _is _accepted among his friends, no matter what his conscience tells him. He grinned playfully and moved his tails up so they were brushing the _echidna's_ face now, causing the scarlet mammal to begin laughing himself. The off-white kitsune wrapped one of his tails around Knuckles's torso, before pulling him down onto the couch with a strong tug. Sonic, taking advantage of the momentary cease fire, tackled the vulpine, knocking him off the couch, before tickling him and making him roar with laughter. Knuckles, now free from the fox's relentless brushing, grabbed two of the kitsune's tails and used them to tickle Sonic, causing him to stop his assault on Tails and clutch his sides, chuckling furiously. Tails went ahead and used the rest of his tails to pin the echidna and the hedgehog to the floor, standing up.

"Looks like I win!" He announced victoriously, releasing a hearty laugh as he watched one of his two adversaries struggle to escape his grip.

"Ugh... Th-That's not fair, Tails! Let us go!" Sonic complained, continuing to grunt as he tried desperately to escape the fox's grapple on him. Knuckles was rather enjoying this, and lay contently on the ground, watching the hedgehog struggle with a satisfied smile on his face. Tails knew that Knuckles could probably escape at any time, but he apparently decided not to, seeking amusement from the hedgehog's predicament. Sonic attempted to curl into a spiky ball, but couldn't due to the fox's strong grip. He laughed again. Sonic suddenly stopped struggling, as his eyes were locked on something off to the fox's right. He turned his head to see Amy, in all her skinny-bikini glory. The cobalt hedgehog put on a cheesy grin, his attention completely redirected.

"Hi Amy! I like your boobs!" Sonic said, before clasping his hands over his mouth faster than he can eat a chili dog. And that's FAST. All three of them gawked at the hedgehog, before Amy shot him a weird look.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that..." She muttered, shaking her head. "What did you say?"

Knuckles shot the cobalt hedgehog the most evil grin possible, and the hedgehog shook his head fearfully in response. Tails just started laughing, doubling over from the hilarity of the situation.

"Wellllll... _Sonic _said he liked your-" Knuckles was interrupted by the blue hedgehog slapping him across the face. He turned and glared at Sonic, who glared back.

"A...Amy... Ha ha!! OH ho ho... S-Sonic was just speaking gibberish, h-he didn't say... Anything..." The eight-tailed kitsune stuttered, still laughing. Sonic gave a thumbs-up and another cheesy grin, and knuckles pushed the fox's numerous tails off of him and stood up, walking away angrily as he muttered bad things about the hedgehog under his breath. Tails took a closer look and Amy, and... Woah. She really DID have nice boobs. He could see why Sonic was eyeing them again, but tilting his head toward Amy's face to make it seem like he's looking at her head instead of her chest. He lifted his tails off the hedgehog and allowed him to stand up as he continued eyeing Amy's "orbs". The vulpine sighed and did a facepalm, before charging his right hand with some of the energy from his tails. He poked Sonic in the shoulder, and the perverted hedgehog yelped and jumped away. He was blinking rapidly, his fur on end, as if he had just been electrocuted. Tails blinked and looked at his hand, noting that the usual energy swerving around his palm was replaced by what looked like orange electricity. '_Well that was strange...' _he thought, marveling over the fact that his energy had changed somehow. It used to be a thickly-woven blanket of force, but now it's some kind of lightning. How did _that _happen? He looked back up to see Sonic staring at him curiously, his fur STILL on end. The hedgehog grinned in approval.

"Well well well, looks like _someone's _got a new power!" He chimed, playfully punching the off-white fox on the shoulder. Tails looked back at his hands, then at Sonic again, before a slight blush appeared on his furred cheeks, made more apparent by his lighter fur.

"...Power? What?" Amy interjected, causing the cobalt hedgehog to wince as he remembered her presence. The kitsune glanced at the pink hedgehog, confused. He had assumed that Sonic had already told her about the energy in his tails...

Sonic looked at him. "Err, you wanna tell her, Tails?" He inquired, hunching his shoulders. He shook his head, and Sonic gulped, preparing to talk to the love of his life. "Well, Tails kinda has this... Uh... Erm, the thing is, you know how he has eight tails and all?..." Tails blushed at the mention of his multiple appendages. He honestly would prefer that Sonic not talk about them, but he knew that he had to in order to explain what was going on. "Heh... Uhm... Well now he's getting this weird energy in his tails that he can use for magical powers and stuff." Yup, he pretty much nailed it. Amy nodded in understanding. The hedgehog looked like he was going to throw up. "A-And... He just shocked me with... w-with some of it..." He could tell the cobalt hedgehog was being overtaken by shyness, since he seemed to no longer be able to make words. Tails decided he was going to mess with the hedgehog's hormones a little.

"You know he _**likes **_you, right?" Sonic choked on his own breath and looked frightfully at his brother in disbelief. Amy blinked, surprised. Tails grinned evilly, he had the hedgehog right where he wanted, all with just one sentence.

"He does?" Amy inquired curiously, looking at the cobalt hedgehog, who was folding his ears and blushing nervously.

"Uh-uhm, well, we kinda gotta go s-somewhere, so-uh-bye Amy!" Sonic said, grabbing the fox's arm and dragging him to the kitchen. The pink hedgehog put her hand on her chin in thought as they left. The cobalt hedgehog dragged Tails to the back of the kitchen, before letting him go, his ears still folded. "Y-you told me you weren't going to tell her!" He whimpered through his teeth at the young fox.

He shrugged. "What can I say? She had to know at _some _point, and since you can't muster up the courage to tell her, I went ahead and did it for you." The white kitsune said, making the hedgehog do a facepalm.

"But I-I'm not ready for this!"

"Sure you are, you're 26, and she's 23. It's about time you two got together!" Tails teased, wagging his finger at the hedgehog. "Besides, she likes you back. She always has." The kitsune was speaking the truth, but Sonic refused to show his love for Amy in front of her. The thing is, all his friends knew, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about. No peer pressure, no immaturity (Except maybe from Knuckles), and nothing holding him back. The girl he liked was on the other side of the street, and there were no cars around. The sound of someone tapping their foot could be heard, and Sonic quickly whipped around to see Amy standing in the doorway, watching the cobalt hedgehog with a squint and a small, suggestive smile.

"Hey Sonic, you wanna go over to the couch and make out?" Amy chimed, pointing a thumb over her shoulder, causing Sonic to blush even harder. Tails bumped him with an elbow, muttering "Go on, you know you want to..." but the shy blue hedgehog stayed put. Amy began walking to them, and Sonic attempted to turn around and run, but was met face-to-face with a cupboard. His next try, which was for the other door leading to the hallway, was interrupted by his eight-tailed friend closing the door and standing in front of it, smiling deviously and crossing his arms. The hedgehog was trapped. He frantically searched for another, nonexistent door, another way out, but found none. Amy was closing in fast, if he didn't find some way to get out of there soon, he would probably pass out from the stress. To Tails and Amy's suprise, Sonic catapulted himself straight over the pink hedgehog with his strong legs, and quickly ran out the door. _Man he's clever_, Tails thought, but his thoughts were interrupted by sounds of struggling, probably caused by a certain scarlet echidna. Moments later, said scarlet echidna walked into the kitchen, restraining the cobalt hedgehog by both his arms and his legs. When Knuckles saw that Amy was present, his serious look quickly changed to a grin, Sonic continuing to struggle. Tails decided he wanted to try something. He transferred some of the electrical energy from his tails into his hand, and then concentrated it further into his right index finger. Then, he thrusted his hand forward and pointed, before a bolt of solid lightning shot out from his finger, illumating the kitchen and making a loud booming sound. Unfortunately, Sonic was carried into the path of the lightning bolt, and he was electrocuted _intensely_ for a few seconds, before the electricity ceased flowing, revealing a hedgehog whose fur was charred black.

The white kitsune marveled at what he just did. He...He had a _weapon! _Finally, something he could use to defend himself! He looked at his hand again, and smiled brightly, excited at all the things he could possibly do with his new powers. He looked up at his friends, and his smile quickly changed to a surprised look as he saw his hedgehog brother unmoving on the tiled floor, dazed. Knuckles had dropped him as soon as the lightning bolt connected to avoid being electrocuted himself, which only succeeded partially, as his hands were also charred black. In fact, the hedgehog's fur was charred so much that his eyes were the only thing you _could_ see. Everything else was just... black. The scarlet echidna was gawking at the kitsune, arms extended above him, and he could tell that he was startled beyond all imagination. Amy, after an initial gawk, was trying to make Sonic stand upright, in vain. He was still dazed too much to move, as shown by the spirals in his eyes. Knuckles redirected his attention from the empowered fox to the black hedgehog, and walked over, hand on his chin. He then snapped his fingers, having an epiphany.

"Ohh Sonic, with that black stuff all over your fur, you're going to have to take a..." A grin spread across the echidna's face. _"Bath._" At that one word, the onyx hedgehog was quickly on his feet and backed up against a wall, breathing heavily in fear.

"W-Wait, Knuckles-I don't need a bath-I can just... Uh... Brush it off! See?!" The hedgehog said nervously, trying to brush off his singed outer coat, but when he saw it wasn't working, his nervous grin almost literally _fell _off his face. Knuckles jumped on the hedgehog, and before he had time to react, he was pinned against the tiled floor. Sonic had too little upper body strength to break free, but that didn't stop him from struggling. Tails walked over to the hedgehog and echidna, and knelt down in front of them.

"You're gonna have to take that bath, Sonic. If you want to, I can help you with-"

"NUH-uh!" The black-furred hedgehog interrupted. "Don't touch me, thunderpants! You're the reason I have to take a bath anyway!" Knuckles snickered at the hedgehog's new nickname for his best friend, who did a facepalm.

"Knuckles, if you please?" 'Thunderpants' asked, gesturing torward the bathroom on the other side of the hall. Sonic's fearful expression returned, and he continued his futile attempt to resist the Echidna as he was carried in the direction of the bathroom. Despite his best efforts, which included clawing at the floor and holding onto the doorframe, he was dragged into the bathroom.

---

About an hour later, Sonic was shivering madly, his blue towel wrapped tightly around his small figure, which was a beautiful shade of shiny cobalt once more. Unlike Tails, he never got much taller after 18. He stayed at a small 4'1'', and was constantly teased about his height by Knuckles. Tails, however, got _much _taller. He shot all the way up to 4'5'', four inches taller than the cobalt hedgehog, something he was rather jealous of. Even Knuckles grew to 4'3'', effectively making the hedgehog the short one of the group. He HATED being the short one. He was short when he was a little kid, then he was the tall one up until 18 years old, and then... Everyone else got taller. Even Amy's taller! What the _hell?! _ Of course, he was not thinking about his height at the time, he had more pressing matters to focus on. He was sitting on the couch with his three friends, looking at them with a mixture of shock, anger, and surprise.

"You...You _betrayed _me... _Both of you!"_ The cobalt hedgehog growled at the fox and the echidna, pulling his towel around him tighter. They shoved him into that tub full of deadly liquid... They used that scratchy brush that he _hated.._. And the water was too hot... Tails simply patted the hedgehog on the head, and he snarled in response, causing the fox to retract his hand. The white fox doing that in public only makes Sonic look and feel shorter.

"Oh relax Sonic, it's just a foot and a half of water and a good brushing to scrub off all that singed fur." Knuckles said happily, patting the hedgehog on the back. He was getting enjoyment out of this, wasn't he? The hedgehog's soft coat of fur was now a little bit coarse now that about half of it's length was burnt badly by Tails's lightning attack and then scrubbed off. He glared at his brother and growled.

"This is YOUR FAULT!" He yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the fox.

"Yeah... I guess it is..." He said tauntingly, chuckling to himself. "Want me to do it again so we can see what your skin looks like?" He added, standing up and visibly charging some electrical energy into his right hand.

The hedgehog shook his hands in front of him vigorously. "No no no DON"T!!" He quickly yelled in fear, not wanting to suddenly become bald. The kitsune complied and re-absorbed the energy, sitting back down on the couch. Knuckles burst out laughing at the hedgehog's reaction, and he pouted in response, still angry at him. Tails stood up again and walked to the door, opening it and walking outside.

"Bye guys, I'm going out!" He called, waving his hand back and forth. He received a goodbye from the echidna, but the hedgehog angrily growled "Just LEAVE!", causing him to chuckle once more, before he shut the door, his two best friends now out of his sight. He revved up his tails, and shot off immediately in the direction of Superiority Park.

* * *

**Alright guys, I finished the first chapter. :D**

**Holy CRAP this took a long time to write... Oh well, I'm finished with it now, and now you can all read it. =3**

**In fact, I think I might go with the same pre-chapter and post-chapter style as Tails on Steroids, another fanfic I made. If you want to, go read it, it's hilarious. xD**

**Me: Alright then, here we go. Anyone else here? Hmm?**

**Sonic: You... You burnt off my fur!  
**

**Me: No I didn't, Tails did. :D His powers are awesome, huh?**

**Sonic: Don't change the subject! First you singe off my fur, then you make me take a BATH! I HATE baths!**

**Me: Oh quit being a little weenie Sonic, you're 25. :D**

**Sonic: Oh very clever Sherlock. Me? A little weenie? Do you KNOW how many times I've saved the-**

**Me: WHOAP we're outta time, see ya next time folks! **

**Sonic: No, stop! I'm not done he-**

**-FZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ-**


	2. Chapter 2

**Me: Sup guys, it's time for the next chapter! :D This chapter was extremely fun to write, because it has some very cool stuff in it. Oh and also it has a sort-of violent scene in it. Just read. :D**

**Sonic: And we introduce a new fan-character that's almost EXACTLY like-**

**Me: Shush. o.o**

**Sonic: Oh, sorry.**

**Me: Anyway, some might note a small likeness to the Naruto series if they pay attention, although this was fueled entirely by my overactive imagination. xD This chapter is also a little bit longer.**

**Sonic: Seriously, can I tell them about Jor- (CLANG)**

**Me: (Is holding a frying pan) Enjoy! :D**

**(But seriously, Go read Mythical if you haven't yet. It's in my favorites. Read the original story, then the unfinished chapter, then start over again from the first chapter.)**

**

* * *

  
**

**White**

**Chapter 2**

**By Sparkz**

"Bye guys, I'm going out!" Tails called, waving goodbye to his two friends. He recieved a cheerful "Bye Tails!" from Knuckles, but from Sonic, he got a an angry "Just LEAVE!!". He chuckled to himself, the hedgehog was obviously still angry about his singed fur, and even worse (for him), having to take a _bath_. The cobalt mammal's fear of water only made it that much worse in his opinion, but he was probably just overexaggerating when he screamed in pain from the brush. True, it was the coarsest brush they owned, and was only used in heavy-duty cleaning, but it couldn't have hurt _that _much... The white kitsune closed the door, blocking his sight of the cheerful echidna and the steaming hedgehog, before he turned around and walked to the dirt road in front of their house.

Sonic's house was far out in the forest, a few miles away from Station Square, so the bustling civilization hadn't yet reached the area. The house was, essentially, in the middle of nowhere, with only a dirt road going straight for miles in one direction, the direction of Station Square. He began spinning his eight tails behind him like an industrial fan, which took longer due to them being heavier and more numerous than back when he was 12, before lifting his feet off the ground and taking off at high speed. The trees and dirt road underneath him simply became streaks of color at his sides, but in front of him, he could clearly see where he was going. He remembered just a couple days ago, when he couldn't do this. He had given up on trying to spin his tails like a rotor when he got his fifth one at 14 years old, and simply tried to just run fast like Sonic for a while, but just two days ago, he had attempted it once more, and succeeded. His agility and speed in the air had increased more and more as he continued growing more tails over the years, and now he could move at roughly Mach 2 with no trouble.

A loud _**BOOM **_suddenly met his ears, and he realized that he had reached the speed of sound, and a grin spread across his face. The ground beneath him suddenly changed to a gray color instead of a beige one as he reached the outer streets of Station square, and there were a few pedestrians strolling along the pavement on the sidewalks, but he knew that all they saw as he passed by was a sudden, brief streak of silver-orange. In just a few short seconds, he knew he had reached Station Square from the buildings, and quickly tucked his lower body in front of him so his tails were now propelling him the other way. He gradually came to a stop a few feet above the street. The kitsune ceased rotating his appendages, and he fell to his feet on the black pavement of the street, before briskly walking to the sidewalk to avoid getting hit by the speedy cars passing along. Regardless of how fast _he _could move, he could still get seriously injured by a two-ton hunk of metal coming his way, so he stayed clear.

He looked at the large sign protruding from two ten-foot tall hedges, it's contents spelling out the words "Welcome to Superiority Park!". He smiled calmly, gradually walking through the opening into a grassy area of the city surrounded by very tall hedges. There were a few sidewalks layed out here and there to help with locomotion, but overall it was covered with grass and trees and just looked serene and beautiful compared to the hustle and bustle of city life. There were many humans and Mobians running about, a few of the young-uns playing tag or other cute games, some just running for exercise, some running with their best friends, and there were even a few playing Football. There were four trees stragetically grown to represent goal zones on two opposite sides of the park, a feature that the teenagers used to play sports such as Football or Soccer or other activities involving two goal zones. This was his favorite area in all of Station Square, it was just so serene... One could fall asleep easily there, it was just so perfect...

He noticed that several people were staring at him, and his ears drooped slightly, embarrased. The only problem with this area, at least for him, was that it was very public and populated most of the time, and due to the kitsune's many tails, everyone always stared at him. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder, and he turned around to see a lavender hedgehog that looked oddly like Sonic. Tails examined the strange yet friendly hedgehog. He had the same body shape, same height, same eyes, same smile, and Tails was even willing to bet he had the same personality as Sonic.

"Hey there, big guy! How ya' doing?" Yup, same personality. They even had similar voices, but the lavender hedgehog had a slightly lower tone to his. The kitsune raised an eyebrow at the strange mammal that was acting so friendly to him.

"Do I know you?" The off-white fox asked, but the hedgehog chuckled brightly in response, hands on his chest.

"Nah, you don't... But most of the people around here seem to treat you like some sorta' freak. I have to disagree with that." He said, still smiling kindly to him. Okay, this hedgehog acted so much like Sonic that the fox swore they were the same person, just with dyed fur. He smiled at the hedgehog's words, marveling at the fact that someone isn't treating him like an outsider. He playfully ruffled the hedgehog's fur on his head.

"What's your name, kid?" The hedgehog posed in a way that looked very much like Sonic's signature pose.

"My name's Jordan!" Tails put a hand on his forehead and snickered.

"Man, you look and act so much like my best friend... In fact, I could've sworn you were related to him." The hedgehog looked very young, around 15 years old, so it really wouldn't have surprised the fox if he was actually in Sonic's family somewhere. Jordan dropped his pose and looked around them at all the people watching.

"Go away folks, nothin' to see here, just go keep doing whatever you were doing!" he said, waving his hands in front of him as he turned back and forth to dismiss the pedestrians. They mumbled in agreement and turned around, going back to their antics. The kitsune's smile broadened, and he grabbed the hedgehog by the torso and lifted him up to eye-level.

"Heh, you did that really well! I usually just try to ignore them, but that worked!" He said happily, and the hedgehog smiled back at his compliment. He put him down. "Are your parents here?" The hedgehog's smile collapsed, and he looked down to his left, rubbing his left shoulder with his right hand. His happy mood was gone, just like that. The kitsune frowned, apparently he had asked the _wrong_ question.

"Uhm... I don't have one... My parents died a long time ago by drowning in a lake..." The kitsune's frown changed into a sympathetic expression, and he placed his furred hand on the hedgehog's other shoulder.

"Hey, I know what you mean. Both me _and _my best friend grew up without parents, so you're not alone." Another similarity to Sonic, whaddya know... The hedgehog looked up at him and smiled, this time like he felt he was loved. Tails beckoned him over to a wooden bench, and they sat down, proceeding to tell eachother about their lives. The off-white fox continued to feed information to his new friend, and Jordan revealed some more attributes that he had, which further supported the kitsune's theory that him and Sonic were in the same family. The lavender hedgehog could run very fast, but not quite as fast as Sonic, he couldn't swim and is afraid of water from the accident that took his parents' lives, and he _loved _chili dogs. Pretty much the ONLY difference between Sonic and Jordan was their fur color.

The lavender hedgehog looked up at Tails once more. "So you used to have two tails? And you just got more over the years?" The kitsune nodded. "And what do you mean 'Magical Powers'? There's no such thing as magic!"

"Well maybe it's not magic, probably just abilities I have with this weird energy I have in my tails. I electrocuted Sonic with a lightning bolt this morning..." He said, chuckling to himself. "He had to take a _bath_, the one thing that he hates the most." Jordan shuddered at the word "Bath", attracting the attention of the fox.

"Ugh... I hate baths too... It's... It's _water! _I don't want to drown!" He hugged his knees in fright, and the kitsune reminded him that he wasn't needing to take one right now, which made him relax.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Tails asked, and the hedgehog shook his head. "Well, you can come home with me tonight if you wa-"

The fox suddenly felt something hard strike the back of his head, and he yelled in pain, clutching the impact point. He turned his head to see a wolf laughing and holding a plank of wood that looks like it came from a fence.

"Well whaddya' know, it can feel pain! Who knew a freak like this even had emotions at all?" The grey wolf laughed, looking at two tough-looking wolves behind him, who laughed as well. Tails, suddenly overcome with anger, quickly stood up and grabbed the front of the wolf's shirt and brought him up off the ground to his face.

"What the _**HELL!?**_" He screeched angrily in the wolf's face, gritting his teeth. The wolf's cocky attitude quickly changed to one of slight fear, and he simply stared at him, not saying a word. The fox was breathing heavily, and on each exhale came a menacing growl. Jordan, who had been watching the ordeal, grabbed the fox's arm, and he averted his gaze to look at the hedgehog at his side.

"Miles, calm down! You told me this isn't you!" Jordan said, trying to remind the fox that he doesn't _ever _do this. But he didn't care, he was sick and tired of being treated like _shit _by some cocky asshole! He made a grave mistake by hitting him in the back of the head with a wooden plank. He looked back at the wolf and bared his fangs, snarling as his vision gaining an angry red tint. The wolf looked horrified, but he never said a word.

"You freaking ass-heads are BACK?! You know what, I've had enough of you!"Tails threw the wolf to the ground, before jumping on top of him, pinning him down. This wolf was about to take the consequences of all the things he's done.

"Stop! Please, stop! I-I'm sorry, I didn't want to do that! The others forced me to!" The wolf cried, a sudden change in his cocky attitude. But Tails knew he was lying, he was just trying to get out of this. The wolf was so scared that he had tears streaming out of his eyes, but the kitsune didn't care. **At all. **All he could feel was rage. _Every _time he came to this park, he was attacked by a group of wolves who bullied him for having eight tails. But he never did anything. This was the last straw, and he was going to punish the wolf for all the crap he's been feeding him, and make his little friends just _watch_. He gradually felt the energy from his tails envelop his body, causing him to emanate an angry red glow, which made the wolf very, very scared. He was literally bawling, begging the kitsune to cease what he was doing and to let him go, that it wasn't his fault. Tails didn't believe him. He raised his clawed hand in an arched position, and brought it down onto the wolf's face, tearing three gouges in his flesh. Gasps came from the other two wolves, which were now backed up against a tree, keeping their distance. The wolf beneath him cried out in pain, crimson blood gushing from the wounds on his face, and his tears only made it sting even more. Tails felt an immense feeling of satisfaction after he clawed the wolf's face, and almost smiled, before he dug his bloody claws into the wolf's chest and dragged them downward, tearing muscle and rendering it relatively useless. The wolf was hysterical now, screaming and crying and begging the angry fox to stop hurting him.

**"Heh. You had this coming." **The kitsune said, his clenched teeth gradually curving into a cynical smile as his voice echoed darkly. His voice had changed, it was now extremely demonic-sounding, and the wolf simply screamed at the top of his lungs as the kitsune began to pierce his neck with his blood-red claws.

Jordan, thinking quickly, launched himself into Tails's chest, knocking him off the wolf and slamming him into a tree, cracking the brown bark. The lavender hedgehog stared into the fox's hatred-filled eyes, and gasped when he saw that the fox's irises were now blood red, and his pupils were tall slits. This, combined with almost-white fur, the demonic red glow, and the evil smile, made him look much like a monster. "Tails! You gotta calm down, this isn't like you! you would never hurt anyone like that!" He screamed, finally attracting the kitsune's full attention. "You heard what he said, he didn't want to do that, the others forced him to!"

The kitsune's cynical yet furious expression softened slightly at the hedgehog's words. The lavender hedgehog, even though he just met the fox, knew that he would never deliberately hurt someone like that. "Calm down!" Tails's senses, previously overcame by anger, started to move back into place. Jordan's face, like the wolf's, was streaked with tears, showing that he was extremely upset, which started to make him think that he was doing something wrong. The off-white kitsune could hear only two things: His heartbeat, and the lavender hedgehog's voice. His vision was unstable, blurring and refocusing inside a blood-red tint. He suddenly clutched his head, an intense migraine clouding the rest of his senses, his entire body covered with sweat. It blocked out every single thing around him, the noises of the wind, the screaming and crying of the wolf he had just badly injured, the upset voice of the lavender hedgehog, and most of all, his sense of reason. An eternity passed, or at least it felt like it, before his migraine lessened. When he opened his eyes, he saw Jordan on top of him, his upset, tear-streaked face, his eyes bloodshot. What...What did he just do? He looked to the side of the hedgehog to see the wolf that he had just mauled, screaming in pain as he lay in the pool of blood forming around him.

Everyone in the park was staring at them. A lot of fights happened at this park, whether it be between tough guys, siblings, or just two random people that got on eachother's nerves, but nothing quite as scary-looking as this. The wolf's horrified, pained bawling made him feel extremely guilty. How could he hurt someone like that, out of nowhere? Sonic would be disappointed in him...

"...T...Tails? Are you okay now?" The lavender hedgehog said, looking at the fox.

Tails held his head in his hands. "I...I can't believe I did that..." He sobbed, whimpering. What happened back there? First he was angry, and then... Then he really wanted to kill the wolf, and was taking satisfaction out of it. But he's not evil! Why...? Jordan rubbed the fox's head, trying to cheer him up a little bit.

"Don't worry about it... He deserved that, he started it when he slammed that fencepost into your head. You actually have a lot of blood back there, so you two are essentially even." Tails took his hands off his face, reaching behind his head to feel it. Pain. It felt wet with blood. He gasped, bringing his hand back around to observe the crimson liquid it was covered with. Unlike the kitsune, the lavender hedgehog was somewhat calmed down now, and was trying to cheer him up. "In fact, we should probably get you some first-aid. Hey, can I come see your house?"

The kitsune nodded in agreement, although the fact that his house was 3 miles away, and the fact that he didn't feel like running didn't help his mood. Jordan got into a running position, aimed at the exit. "Wanna run there?" He smiled a little at the hedgehog's extreme likeness to Sonic, before he complied and got up, beginning to jog. The hedgehog easily kept up with him, but he didn't dare go ahead, because he had absolutely no idea where his destination lay. He passed through the entrance to the park, completely oblivious to the people watching him, before getting on the empty street that he arrived on, and starting to speed up. The hedgehog gave a confident smile as he continued running with the fox. Tails began to rotate his tails behind him, speeding up even more as the hedgehog watched in awe. "Th...That's awesome!" Jordan exclaimed, marveling at the fox's fan-like way to gain speed. A few minutes later, they were at the outskirts of Station Square, and running at least 100 Mph. The lavender hedgehog was starting to pant, as he had never gone quite this fast before. Tails slowed down slightly to give the little hedgehog a break, remember that he was not running with Sonic. But soon, they were running at least twice as fast, the scenery around them changing to a blur. Tails saw the hedgehog's mouth move, but whatever he said was lost in the wind. The white kitsune looked ahead of him to see Sonic's house coming up, and he started to slow down, the lavender hedgehog copying his action and slowing down as well. The kitsune lifted his lower body in front of him once more to slow down quickly, but his newfound friend skidded to a stop, nearly crashing into the mailbox, which made the fox chuckle.

* * *

"Well, this is our house. Err, mine and my best friend's, I mean." The light-orange kitsune said passively, and the young hedgehog next to him marveled at it.

"It's awesome! I-I've never been in a house for years..." Tails laughed and patted the hedgehog's head, before he walked up to the door and rang the doorbell, before walking to the left so Jordan was standing directly in front of the door.

"Coming!" Sonic's faint voice said, and footsteps were heard, before he opened the door. He noticed Tails first. "Hey Tails! You're back already? And who's thi-...Uh..." Sonic was at a loss for words as he looked at the purplish hedgehog. Tails laughed out loud, doubling over as the two almost identical hedgehogs stared at eachother suprisedly, neither saying a word.

It was like looking in a mirror for them. They started to move in exactly the same way, symmetrically, of course. First, they both raised one of their hands in front of them. Then, they both did their signature poses, which were almost identical. They both ran in place at the same time. "So, how do you feel about water?" The eight-tailed kitsune asked, and he got the same response from both hedgehogs in the exact same tone: "I _hate _water!" Then they looked at eachother again, before placing their hands on their furred chins. They both looked at the hysterically laughing fox and said "Tails, who is this?" at the exact same time, which only made him laugh harder. Tails eventually got a hold of himself again, and introduced the two hedgehogs to eachother. "Sonic, meet Jordan. Jordan, meet Sonic."

"Err, come in, Jordan..." Sonic said slowly, and he stepped to the side, still keeping an eye on his duplicate as he walked in. They both sat down on the couch that was now leaning against the wall--Knuckles had rearranged the furniture while Tails was away-- and continued staring at eachother, still not saying a word.

"C'mon you two, make chitchat. Just because you look almost identical doesn't mean you can't say anything." Tails said, still snickering, but the two hedgehogs still didn't say anything for a moment.

"Uhm... Hello, I'm Sonic..." The blue hedgehog said, slowly extending his palm for a handshake. Jordan shook his hand prominently, but the conversation remained slow. After a while, Knuckles walked in, wearing a chef's hat and apron and holding a wooden spoon.

"Oh hey Tails, you're back! Oh and also, Sonic, your food is almo-......" Knuckles stopped his sentence abruptly at the sight of two hedgehogs. He raised an eyebrow at Tails. "Tails, did you build some kinda cloning machine?" The white kitsune burst out into more hysterical laughter in response, which only confused the scarlet echidna. Both hedgehogs were looking at Knuckles.

"Oh hey Knuckles!" They both said at the same time with almost the same voice, before looking back at eachother. Tails was on the floor. Knuckles rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing double, but when he opened them again, there were still two hedgehogs.

"Okay, I think those carrot fumes are getting to me. I'll just go back into the kitchen and-"

"No, wait, Knuckles, there really are two of them!" The kitsune said, getting back up and walking over to the scarlet echidna. "The thing is, I found another hedgehog in the park and-"

**"AHH!!" **Sonic screamed at the sight of the extreme amount of blood on the back of Tails's head. He quickly ran up to the fox and examined the wound, before opening the emergency medical cabinet and grabbing some bandages.

"Oh _shit _Tails, what happened?!" The hedgehog yelled in panic as he quickly wrapped bandages around the back of the fox's head and his forehead, before tying it down with some medical tape. The fox turned around and grabbed the shoulders of the hyperventilating hedgehog.

"Sonic! Calm down, it's not that severe!" The fox yelled at the cobalt hedgehog, shaking him back and forth. "A wolf hit me in the back of the head with a fencepost. Sure, it hurt, but it's not severe, trust me." Sonic pulled free of the fox, and walked back over to the couch, before sitting down, still shocked.

"A-are you sure? Th-that's a _lot _of blood..." He said, still worried out of his mind at his brother's injury.

"Yeah, really, I'm fine!" Tails said, and Sonic breathed a sigh of relief.

"So... There are TWO Sonics?" Knuckles said, still rather confused.

"Yep." Jordan suddenly interjected, grinning playfully. The cobalt hedgehog looked at him again, while Knuckles simply blinked. Tails started laughing again. The scarlet echidna gave up and walked back into the kitchen, a hand on his forehead.

"Uhm...What's your....Favorite food?" Sonic asked, tapping the purple hedgehog on the shoulder. Tails put his hand on a table to try and steady himself, and slowly stood up.

"Chili dogs!" He exclaimed with a toothy grin, causing the kitsune to fall down again. Sonic threw his arms up and shouted with glee, before wrapping them around the other hedgehog.

"Are you SURE he's not a clone?" Knuckles called from inside the kitchen. The fox was still on the floor, laughing his tails off.

"AH HA HA!! S-stop, stop!!" Tails begged, trying to lift himself up off the ground. The two hedgehogs looked, sounded, and acted so similarly that one could swear that they were the same person. Sonic and Jordan continued to discuss their similarities for about 5 minutes, before Knuckles walked back into the room.

"Alright Sonic, Tails, and... Uh..." Knuckles snapped his fingers a few times.

"Jordan." The lavender hedgehog corrected.

"Well yeah, it's time for Lunch. C'mon, we're having chili dogs!" Sonic immediately perked up and dashed into the kitchen, followed by Jordan, and then the eight-tailed kitsune. Now that the lights were on in the kitchen, you could easily see that it was tiled blue and was fairly large. On the south side, there was a long counter with an oven and stove, a microwave, and other cooking devices. In the cabinets below the counter there were cooking utensils, like pots and pans. All along the north side were large glass windows, and there was a large circular table on the northeast corner, where Knuckles was laying down the plates, utensils, and chili dogs. Knuckles had actually become great at cooking over the years, and was currently the house chef. Three years ago, when Tails was 14 and had five tails, Knuckles took up an interest in cooking. His very first dish: Chinese chicken stir-fry. Oh man, he burnt it SO badly, and it was disgusting. The scarlet echidna, knowing that his dish was burnt, took an online course on how to cook. Eventually, his cooking became _so _good that everyone loved him for it, and he pretty much started cooking every meal that they had. Sonic's mouth was watering at the smell of Knuckles's unique chili recipe, and he was hovering over the plate of chili dogs, ready to dig in when Knuckles gave the word that he could start eating.

"Maaaan, I haven't had chili dogs in weeks..." Jordan droned, also hovering over the plate of chili dogs. Then the two hedgehogs looked at eachother again, and Tails almost fell out of his chair from laughter. Knuckles muttered something like "I _swear _that purple one's a clone..." as he sat down, still wearing the chef's hat.

"Alright guys, you can eat now." Knuckles said, and the two hedgehogs started stuffing entire chili dogs into their mouths and swallowing them whole, while Tails quickly saved two chili dogs from the hedgehogs' wrath and placed them on his plate. The entire plate, except for two chili dogs, were devoured by the two hedgehogs in mere seconds. They stopped just in time to give Knuckles two chili dogs, since he was the one who cooked them, and simply sat down in their chairs as the two slower eaters consumed their hotdogs. The white kitsune was taking small, clean, dainty bites out of his chili dogs, while the scarlet echidna was chomping off huge pieces and almost not chewing them at all.

Jordan tapped the fox on the shoulder, and received a small growl in response, before the kitsune realized what he was doing and immediately stopped himself. "Sorry... It's a bad habit..." He said, grinning sheepishly. Much like a wild fox, Tails often growled at those who touched him while he was eating. He started doing this when he was 16 and had seven tails, startling Sonic the very first time it happened, but he's been working on the embarrassing habit for almost a year and a half now , with minimal sucess. Sonic gulped loudly, downing his last chili dog.

"So Tails, what did you do while you were out? I mean, other than get hit in the back of the head with a fencepost." The cobalt hedgehog asked, reminding the kitsune of the terrible, evil thing he did to that wolf. His ears drooped and he looked down, suddenly feeling extremely guilty. Jordan, however, was peppy and open about it.

"Well, Tails got into a fight and severely injured a wolf by slashing his face and ches-"

"I-I didn't mean to, okay!?" The fox interrupted, throwing his arms down, a guilty look on his face. "He hit me in the back of the head with that fencepost, and I-I just got so _angry_ that..." Tails's voice cracked, and he clutched his head, breathing heavily.

"Tails... I refuse to believe you would do something like that... That's not you... You would never do that, something must have-..." The hedgehog said, worry apparent in his voice. Sonic noticed the blood on the kitsune's hands. Tails...Got into a fight? The fox in question dropped his head onto the table, still clutching it with both hands, shaky breaths escaping his throat. Memories of his deed flashed through his mind; The wolf's pained, horrified screaming as the kitsune carved three gashes in his face, the cynical smile he felt crawl across his own muzzle, Jordan's tear-streaked face... His shaky breaths quickly transformed into hyperventilation as he clutched his head tighter, his own stress building.

"Sonic... Please help... I don't know what's gonna happen to me..." The fox cried, his voice slightly muffled by the table. The hedgehog stood up and placed a hand on the kitsune's shoulder, trying to help him calm down, but it wasn't working as well as he thought. The fox was.... taken over by something back there with the wolf. He knew he would never mutilate someone, not even one he despised, but for some reason he wanted very much to take the wolf's life. He didn't care who was watching. Not only that, but he was taking enjoyment out of the wolf's pain, and he was _so close _to killing the bawling canine that he could almost taste it. If Jordan hadn't intervened, then the kitsune would probably have committed his very first cold-blooded murder. A scary thought entered his mind. What if he couldn't control himself once he became a Kyuubi? What if he killed everyone around him, even those he loved? He remembered the red tint on his vision during his attack... What if... What if that was caused by the energy in his tails? Normally his vision has a sort-of sapphire-blue tint, although he never noticed it until his event of hostility toward an innocent mobian that was probably younger than him.

"Tails... It's...It's okay, don't be upse-"

"No! It's not okay!" The off-white fox interrupted the hedgehog, moving his hands off his head and slamming his wrists onto the table, before he looked up at the cobalt hedgehog, his face painfully streaked with tears. "I-I almost killed an innocent person!" He was still hyperventilating, the salinic substance continuing to flow from his eyes.

"He wasn't innocent, he hit in you in the back of the head with a piece of wood. I already told ya' Tails, he deserved that!" Jordan chipped in, but the kitsune directed his attention torward him, his eyes saying everything on his mind, but the lavender hedgehog wasn't too bright, just like Sonic when he was 15.

"S-so what if he hit m-me with a b-blunt object?! I-I probably s-sent him to the h-hospital!" Tails stuttered, his guilt overwhelming his judgment. This was probably going to be on the news tomorrow, he feared. "Local wolf mauled by what he claims to be an "Eight-tailed monster" of some sort, with white fur, red eyes, and a cynical smile.". And as far as the kitsune knew, he was the only eight-tailed monster around. Sonic, having previously had his hand knocked off by the fox's sudden rise, placed it back on his shoulder.

"Tails...You're not the only one in this room who's attacked someone for calling them a freak." The cobalt hedgehog said, obviously hinting to himself, as the white kitsune had been told by the not-overjoyed-at-the-time blue blur that he attacked a lizard for insulting his fur color back when he was very young. "You've been in two less fistfights than that specific person." The naive hedgehog seemed to not understand that this was certainly _not _a fistfight. The fox had employed his claws to maul the wolf, and had completely ignored his pleas for him to stop. He could remember piercing his ultra-sharp claws halfway into the wolf's throat before Jordan intervened with a spindash to his chest, knocking him into a tree, but he felt no pain. He also remembered the calm orange-colored energy from his tails shift into a dark, menacing red before enveloping his body, most likely acting as a shield of some sort, which explained why he felt nothing physically at that time. In fact, he could feel it crawling up his midsection _right now_. He looked down at his torso, seeing an oddly cyan-colored transparent energy seeping up through his fur. Jordan and Knuckles were simply staring at him, bewildered as to what was happening to the young fox, while he panicked inside at the fear that he might do the same thing he did to that wolf to all his friends. _'No, stop! Go away!' _He thought at the thick substance slowly enveloping his body, but it didn't listen, as it probably wasn't capable of coherent thought. The fox felt his brother take his gloved hand off of him, before he turned around to look at the hedgehog, to see a slightly startled look on his face. Tears continued to flow from his eyes.

"Sonic... Please help..." He muttered as the energy enveloped his face, causing him to shut his eyes and stumble backwards, clutching his head once more. Sonic tried to grab Tails's shoulders, but for some reason all he wasn't able to touch the fox. He could only lay his hands on the energy, which wiggled and writhed under his gloved hand, which felt extremely odd. The coat of energy perfectly enveloped and mimicked the kitsune's body, although it had to be slightly larger than the fox to compensate for the space it couldn't use.

Jordan thought this was odd. Last time he saw this happen, which was merely half an hour ago, the coat was blood-red, not cyan... Maybe it responded to extreme emotion, which the off-white fox was currently feeling, clutching his head as tears flowed out of his eyes. Red for anger, Cyan for sadness, as far as the lavender hedgehog knew. He walked up to his newfound friend and poked the coat of thick cyan, only to find that his finger made little more than a dip into it. Sonic looked at him pleadingly, as if to ask him to leave so he can manage whatever was happening to his best friend.

Tails, however, was experiencing something completely different.

* * *

Amidst the darkness of his mind, he was standing in what looked like a spotlight, no more than 5 feet in diameter. He could see images of the past events in his life that he could remember far off in the distance, and there was a voice... A voice that was just like his. _'Who are you? What's happening to me? Why aren't I where I just was?!" _The fox screamed inside his mind, hoping that the voice could hear him.

_**'Oh, I hear you.' **_It responded, in a very calm, but still humble tone. It wasn't like the voice he had heard at Powahouse Pro Automobile Repair Co., that one had evil dripping from it's voice. This one had no sarcasm, no evil, not a single drop of discontent or disappointment present, but rather, concern. This voice sounded exactly like him, acted exactly like him, and if he could see it, he was willing to bet it **looked **exactly like him. _**'So many questions, so little time, correct Miles?' **_It said again, in his voice.

_'What's happening to me outside? I-I could just see a dense blue energy crawling up through my fur, and then it flooded over my face, and then I wound up here...' _The fox said, trying to remember exactly what happened. He felt a hand lay on his left shoulder, but when he turned his head to look at the source, he saw nothing. He could _feel _it, though. Apparently the voice was indeed concerned with him.

_**'Simple, your chakra enveloped you. It happened because you were experiencing extreme emotion. Although you can also call upon it when you wan... Nevermind.'**_The fox raised an eyebrow, although he doubted the voice could see it.

_'My...What?' _He thought, and the voice chuckled concernedly.

_**'Your chakra. It's what that energy is called, and only Kyuubis have and can use it.' **_The voice stated, and the kitsune emitted a small "Oh" at the new information. _**'Since you're so close to getting your ninth tail, you apparently gained use of your chakra a little bit early!' **_It chuckled again, this time slightly amused and a little proud. The fox smiled lightly, wondering what exactly the voice meant

_'A...Are you the same voice that was talking to me during that fire at Powahouse Pro?' _He asked, now a little bit scared. The voice, err, smiled, somehow. He could feel it smiling, but he couldn't see it.

_**'Yeah, I'm that same voice. But I'm not normally like that. I was only so serious because I knew you needed my help.'**_It said warmly, reassuring the kitsune that he wasn't in any danger. He smiled again, and the voice chuckled in response. _**'I dragged you into this state because I needed to educate you. A little bit.' **_It snickered, now sounding slightly cynical. _**'But your friends are rather concerned with you outside.'**_

_'Wait, I still have so many questions! What's gonna happen when I get my ninth tail? Why did I almost kill that wolf?? Why couldn't I contro-'_

* * *

Tails's eyes snapped open, still covered with tears. His vision was blurry, but he could still tell that there were three figures, one cobalt blue, one scarlet red, and one lavender, standing before him. The blue one stepped forward and hugged him, but he couldn't feel the familiar and comforting feeling of fur touching fur. As his vision cleared, he could easily see a cyan tint on his vision, and found that Sonic was hugging him tightly, an extremely upset look on his face, tears flowing out of his emerald green eyes.

"Tails! Tails, are you okay!?" The hedgehog cried, his voice shuddering. The fox simply looked at him, still upset himself, and hugged him back, although neither one could feel it due to the barrier of energy blocking the contact between the two brothers. The hedgehog broke down and bawled, his tears simply sliding off the fox's coat of "chakra", hugging the fox tighter. Although he could not feel the contact of Sonic's fur on his, he could still feel the pressure from his squeezing. "I...I thought... you were... gone..." The hedgehog cried out inbetween sobs, desperately wanting to break through the fox's barrier so he could feel his brother's fur. Tails hugged Sonic tighter as well, wanting him to get the message that he was still inside that barrier. The fox could gradually feel the chakra receding, being absorbed back into his tails, and the cobalt hedgehog let out a wail and tightened his hold even further when he could finally feel the kitsune's fur. "Please...don't ever...do that again..." He cried softly, burying his head into the taller kitsune's chest fur.

It was complete role reversal. The hedgehog used to comfort Tails like this when he was little, and now he was returning the favor. The two brothers remained locked together for about ten minutes, before the hedgehog released the fox, still sniffling like he was the younger one. The echidna and the lavender hedgehog, who were watching the whole time, were sitting on the chairs, empathetic expressions on their faces.

"Tails... If there is s-something, _a-anything,_ I can d-do to make this time e-easier for you..." Sonic said caringly, his hand still on his brother's shoulder.

"It's okay Sonic... I think I can pull through..." Tails said in a reassuring tone, causing the hedgehog to smile softly.

Knuckles patted the fox on the back, uttering a short "That's my boy.", before Jordan smiled widely at the fox, apparently wanting to do something. He looked over at him, and he was in a starter's pose.

"So, wanna go running?"

Yep, that hedgehog was definitely just like Sonic.

**

* * *

  
**

**Me: Aww, wasn't that last scene cute? :) I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I took a suggestion from a certain someone in my PMs. xD I hope you enjoyed it, buddy.**

**Sonic: (Is still recovering from the frying pan) Auughh... My head...**

**Me: Also, wasn't this chapter nice n' long? :D You guys can expect more chapters to come, because I ain't finished with this story yet. :) And I won't be for quite a while. Oh, and did you know that MY first name is Jordan? :D Lolz. I decided to use it for mah fancharacter.  
**

**Sonic: (Is rubbing his head) Aww... Did I miss the story?**

**Me: Sorry... o.o**

**Sonic: Dammit!**

**Me: Anyway, I hope you don't mind that this story has some elements that will remind you of Naruto. :) Oh, and one last thing...**

**TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THIS STORY. DO IT NAOW. I NEED MORE REVIEWERS!!! T.T**


	3. Bowling, lolz

**Me: Time for the next chapter! :D**

**Sonic: Hahaha... Bowling... (snickers)**

**Me: Yes, Bowling. You got a problem with that? :U**

**Sonic: Knuckles ain't too "bowled" when it comes to accuracy... Ha ha ha...**

**Me: Ugh, Sonic! (Facepalm)**

**Sonic: Sorry, couldn't resist...**

**Me: Enjoy!**

**(Some credit goes to thesaurus dawt cawm, that WONDERFUL website that helped me BIG TIME with vocabulary. :D)**

**---------------**

**White**

**Chapter 3**

**By Sparkz**

A white bowling ball was tossed down a slippery wooden lane dusted with wood shavings, before slamming into ten white pins, sending them flying backwards into a mechanized pit. A beep was heard as the scoreboard above them recorded a large red X on round 3 for "Miles".

"YES!!" The white kitsune exclaimed, throwing his arms up and shouting with glee, almost jumping for joy. The scoreboard above him quickly played an animation that involved a turkey walking across the top of a fence before being struck with a bowling ball, and three red X's appeared in it's place. Humans and Mobians who weren't focusing on their own throws were applauding the fox, shouting and clapping their hands.

"Nice Turkey, Tai-...Uh, Miles!" Sonic chipped in, giving the fox a pat on the back. Tails would have glared at the hedgehog's tongue slipping if he wasn't so overjoyed at the time. The fox was not very fond of his brother constantly forgetting to not use his nickname, since it drew attention to the eight appendages flicking behind him. He decided to mock the cobalt hedgehog's tongue slipping.

"Thanks, Maur-Eh, Sonic!" The hedgehog's congratulatory smile quickly and humorously converted itself to an irritated pout, earning a few chuckles from the scarlet echidna that was currently holding a red bowling ball, about to take his turn after Tails was done showboating. When the fox descended to the lower area that Sonic was currently waiting in, Knuckles stepped up to the lane. The echidna had taken his gloves off, since they didn't have fingers and could not be used to bowl, so you could easily see his seldom-revealed red-furred fingers. He quickly swung his arm backward, and then brought it forwards, sending the ball careening into the pins. The echidna was so strong that his bowls were more like throws, and it would have provided an unfair advantage if for the fact that he was not very co-ordinated, and usually missed the center of the pins. This particular throw, he had earned himself a 7-10 split, which caused the cobalt hedgehog to break down in a fit of giggles. A vein popped out on Knuckles's forehead as the machine sent another bowling ball his way.

Tails, who was currently standing up on the sidelines, was turning his ears back and forth, overhearing a nearby conversation. "They gotta be fake..." One said, a male's voice. "They don't _look _fake... Try pulling on one of them." Another reasoned, a female voice. "I'd reckon ya' not do that, I read about them keet-suhns on the internet, and they can be mighty strong. Don'tcha see how those things're glowin'?" Obviously a Texan. "No, do it anyway, I doubt he's the real deal!" The male said again. "Alright, fine, I'll do it..." He raised an eyebrow. Were these people talking about _him?_ He suddenly felt a hand wrap around one of his tails, before it tugged harshly, almost causing him to fall backwards. He turned his head to see a crowd of no more than seven standing behind him cautiously, the closest one, a black, young male cat, gripping one of his many appendages. He was wearing a black tanktop and blue jeans, the shirt blending in with his fur color other than the large logo which said "Mustang" on it. The fox felt a blush crawl across his white muzzle.

"E-erm... Can you... N-not do that? It...It's distracting..." He muttered, trying to make himself seem less embarrassed by this cat's actions. The cat complied and released his tail, but continued to gawk at him, as did the rest of them. His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his embarrassment replaced with irritation. "What are you looking at?" He said, annoyed. "Is there something... _odd _about me that you'd like to point out?" The group shook their heads nervously, but not very convincingly. Apparently they were just curious, which explained why the cat grabbed his tail, wondering if it was fake or not. He took a step forward, and the group froze in place, apparently somewhat scared. He felt another hand, a gloved hand, on his back, and turned around once more to see Sonic, who was pointing at the score board. On round 3, in the "Knuckles" row, there was a slash. Wow, the echidna actually hit both pins in a 7-10 split? That takes _skill! _Said echidna was jumping for joy, obviously proud of the rare feat he had just accomplished. He smiled passively at the echidna's happiness, before he turned back around, preparing to apologize to the group, before he saw the cat about to grab another one of his tails. His eyebrows furrowed even more than before, and he growled angrily at the cat. "What is wrong with you?" The cat retracted his hand and fell onto his rear end, trembling as he gazed up at the taller fox, who was now bending over to get a closer look at the cat's face. The black mammal quickly put his arm in front of him and looked away, closing his eyes, hoping to protect himself from a nonexistant attack from the white kitsune. Tails was rather irritated at the moment, but he didn't quite understand why the cat was acting afraid of him. He wasn't intending to hurt the furry feline, but he retained his defensive position as long as he felt the fox's hot breath on his arm. The off-white fox let the young cat loose with a intimidating growl, before marching back to his seat in the bowling area. His sensitive ears picked up the cat's quiet whimpering behind him, and he smiled triumphantly, knowing that the black feline had learned his lesson, and without any violence, to boot.

When Sonic called him up to take his next turn, (The hedgehog had gotten a score of 7 that round) he stood up and grabbed his white bowling ball. He took a look to the left of him, hoping to see the cat so he could glare at him, but instead, saw a familiar grey wolf with white bandages around his torso, face, and throat sitting in a green wheelchair. Wait a second... That was the exact wolf that the kitsune had mercilessly mauled earlier today. The wolf had tears streaming out of his eyes, either from the strong smell of antisceptic in the bowling alley, or still from being traumatized by the eight-tailed vulpine. His ears dropped flat against his head as he remembered that _he _had caused those injuries, guilt washing over him like an ocean on a sandy beach. Said wolf was looking around the bowling alley, unable to bowl himself due to his chest muscles being torn apart, his eyes resting on the scoreboard above the kitsune's head. Tails silently hoped that the wolf would not spot him, because if he did, then he would most certainly make a scene. Unfortunately, the wolf's eyes gradually slid downward from the digital scoreboard, and on sight of the kitsune, he gasped, his eyes wide open.' _Oh no...'_ The fox thought, knowing that this was about to get loud, fast. He could hear the wolf beginning to hyperventilate, his terror growing.

_"M-Murderer!! G-get him away from me!" _The wolf screamed, wheeling his chair backwards into the podium that served as the controls for his group's scoreboard. Violent memories had returned for both canines, memories of Tails slicing almost-fatal injuries into the wolf's chest. The traumatized wolf fell off his chair sideways, and screamed loudly as he tried to crawl away, his chest muscles unusable from their lacerations. All eyes in the entire bowling alley floated over to the kitsune, who was startled, darting his eyes left and right.. "H-he didn't k-kill me last time, and n-now he's come to f-finish me off!!" The wolf continued to scream, trying to move his impaired, unresponsive body. There was a stream of blood on the floor leading to his position, his chest wounds experiencing unfamiliar pressure from his position on the floor, and the kitsune could easily smell the musky copper-like scent of the crimson liquid. The wolf's friends picked him up off the floor and tried to convince him to calm down, but he continued breathing heavily, coughing up blood from the kitsune's earlier piercing to his throat. "Is he the one that did this to you?" Tails overheard one of them say with his sensitive ears, and the wolf nodded. Along with all the eyes watching the kitsune at the time, was Sonic, who was halfway shocked and halfway confused.

"Miles? Was he the wolf you almost-" The hedgehog was shushed by his brother, not wanting him to accidentally prove the wolf's accusations correct. The crowd, who were ALL watching the fox, was buzzing with shocked conversation, no doubt about the wolf's terrified accusation of the white vulpine. The wolf was _halfway _correct, as the fox did, for some reason, try to kill him, but his thought that he's come back to finish him off was all the less so. The fox decided to try and play dumb.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about! I'm not a murderer!" Tails yelled back, trying to deter the crowd's growing accusatory thoughts. There were security officers in the crowd, looking back and forth between the fox and the screaming wolf, trying to decide if the kitsune really was guilty of assault or if the wolf was just delusional.

"H-He's the o-one who did this to m-me!" The wolf cried, pointing at the blood on his chest, neck, and face. "H-he's a monster!"

A...Monster?

Tails was blown back from the wolf's interpretation of him. He wasn't a monster... He used to save lives with Sonic long ago, not take them! And he didn't mean to attack the wolf! Something just... Came over him! He didn't know what happened... One of the security guards ran up to the kitsune and searched him for any possibly concealed weaponry, patting several locations on his body to look for fake fur patches. Mobians usually walked around naked, albeit with shoes, but not too long ago, dealers on the Black Market started selling fake fur patches that could easily be attached to a Mobian's fur and conceal anything that they desired. He yelped as he felt the guard tug on each one of his tails to see if they were fake, before the tiger clad in blue placed a hand on his chin and re-examined the kitsune's backside.

"Is there a problem officer?" He asked, looking behind him to see the guard looking at his numerous tails. The guard was probably thinking that _nobody _had that many tails, and some of them must be fake, as he tugged on each one again, much harder this time. Tails yelled in pain at the guard's relentless pulling on his appendages.

"Kid, I think some of those tails of yours are fake." The tiger spoke in a deep voice, confirming the kitsune's thoughts. It would be awkward to say that they weren't fake, so he simply stood still. He gulped, but the guard's trained senses caught his act of nervousness, and he immediately took action. He grabbed two of his tails and pulled with all his might, knowing that at least one of the two must be fake, causing the fox to scream in pain and fall backward. The guard sighed, giving up. "I guess not, then. You sure are one rare case, kid." He walked causually back to the other guards, and gave them the word that the fox was not hiding anything, and that, "amazingly", his tails were not fake. The guards nodded at eachother and walked over to the scared wolf, trying to convince him that the vulpine was innocent, but he knew otherwise. "He's a demon! H-he's going kill us all!" The wolf screamed out, completely blinded by fear. The guards were surely going to take him to a mental hospital if this kept up, and this didn't help the fox's already guilty conscience. The guards placed him back in his wheelchair and wheeled him outside into the night, probably so they can talk to him or something. He sighed, and picked up his bowling ball, before tossing it at high-speed into the bowling pins, earning another strike. BING. The audience applauded again, but not as loudly. This was obviously because the wolf accused him of attempted murder, and since the fox had so many tails, this supported some of the others' fearful suspicions of him. He heard a tone over the intercom, indicating that an employee was about to speak.

_"Hello everyone, once again, at Eklaine's Bowling Alley! I hope none of you were greatly impacted by that handicapped wolf's sudden outburst torwards a certain, err, odd-looking fox," _Tails hunched his shoulders, embarrassed once again. _"But our TOP SCORE for tonight, four strikes in a row, belongs to Player "Miles" at Lane 6! And it appears that he... Oh... Well, I hope none of you actually __**believed **__what that wolf said about the fox... Heh, he has so many tai-... Err, anyway, Give him a hand!" _More eyes turned to him, and another roar of applause came, this one almost full-sized. The fox felt his face get hot, and his numerous namesakes laid limp on the floor because of the employee who had completely embarrassed him by slipping up and drawing more attention to his tails. His gaze drifted up to the big window up at the top of the 20-foot high wall close to the entrance, and he saw a cheetah with a headset equipped with a microphone mounted on his head standing inside. The yellow-spotted mammal smiled and waved at him friendlily, before retreating further into the control room, leaving the kitsune with many people staring and mumbling at him. Knuckles cracked his knuckles, before trading places with his foxy friend and grabbing his signature red bowling ball. He reared back, before throwing it at such a high speed that it slipped off of his hand and flew into the pins in an adjacent lane. This earned the Echidna an entire bowling alley laughing at him, and he grinned nervously, before trading places with Sonic.

Sonic stepped up without a bowling ball, grinning confidently. Tails laid a hand on his face and snickered; he knew what the cobalt hedgehog was going to try. The spiked mammal ran forward and jumped, before curling into a ball in mid-air and rolling towards the pins. He got a strike, but it took him a while to be transported back by the machine, because he wasn't exactly bowling-ball sized anymore. When the transportation device finally spat him out, he was dazed from being spun around so many times, and staggered left and right before faceplanting into his chair. The intercom made another tone.

_"Erm, Player "Sonic" of Lane 6, please don't use yourself as a bowling ball, because if you get hurt, we are not responsible for your own bad decisions. Thank you!" _The cheetah on the intercom said, but Sonic was still dizzy from the machine, and didn't hear. Tails's turn. He was actually feeling rather confident, as he was about to get his fifth strike in a row, something nobody in the bowling alley had done that day. He smiled, rearing back and throwing the orange ball just as hard and accurate as before, earning another strike on his score, and even more applause than last time.

"Man Tails, you're doing good! I never knew you would be so good at Bowling!" His hedgehog brother said, walking up beside him and releasing a hearty laugh. The fox was actually spending a few moments in the limelight; His skills have attracted many fans, but some were a little too nosy. Several snuck up behind him and kept touching his namesakes, and his throat was starting to become sore from having to growl constantly to scare them off. He turned his head to Sonic, a worried look on his face.

"Sonic... I don't want to stay here any longer... Too many people are stari-Ah!" The eight-tailed vulpine's sentence was cut short as Knuckles slapped him on the back rather forcefully. The echidna called this "Five-starring", although the concept seemed rather pointless to the 17-year old kit. Although he was not a kit anymore; He had grown in many ways, including his height; much taller than many mobians, and muscle mass; he could finally defend himself if he ever got into trouble, although his personality hadn't changed much. He was still the shy, timid little fox that the hedgehog had adopted back when he was very young. He was indeed the "child" of their little family.

"Aww c'mon Tails, you can't stay cooped up in the house all day. Honestly, I have no problem with the people who are staring," The scarlet echidna turned his head at the spectators, his face contorting into a glare. "Although I think it's rather RUDE of them," The crowd received the message clearly, and went back to their business. He turned his head back to the fox. "But just because ya' got a few extra tails doesn't mean you're any different from anyone else." Tails dropped his head slightly, knowing that the echidna was _very _wrong. He was _not _like everyone else. Everyone else didn't have have dangerous powers. _Everyone else _didn't come within an inch of killing an innocent person! EVERYONE ELSE wasn't going to become a _demon _in four days!! The kitsune put a hand on his forehead, his muscles tensing. What the hell did _he _know?! He didn't understand the situation the kitsune was in! NO ONE did!! The scarlet mammal noticed the fox becoming stressed, and laid a red hand on his shoulder. The off-white vulpine was breathing shakily, a feeling of helplessness and anger rising up inside him.

"...Tails? Are you okay?" Knuckles asked, trying to comfort the angrily shaking mammal. He was going to HURT the next person who tried grabbing one of his tails. Hurt them BADLY. He stomped away from the scene, halting behind the control panel for the scoreboard. A tiger snuck up behind the kitsune, making a very bad decision in the process. He didn't even have time to _touch _one of his tails before the fox turned around and snarled at him, causing him to fall to the ground in fear. He started to crawl away, but Tails quickly grabbed his orange-and-black tail and pulled him backwards, which was remarkably easy due to the fox's upper body strength, developed with age. Let's see how HE freaking likes it. He grabbed the striped mammal's shirt and pulled him up to his face, growling furiously.

_"GET. AWAY. FROM. ME." _He hissed, before throwing the tiger a few feet backward, causing him to stagger to his feet. The fox stepped forwards and clapped his hands over the big cat's ears, disrupting his hearing and causing him to scream in pain and grip his unresponsive eardrums, before shoving an elbow into his stomach and sending him flying into a table, breaking it in half. The loud noise had attracted the attention of those who weren't looking, but for the ones who were, they yelped in surprise.

Sonic turned his head at the loud noise, and laid eyes on the steaming kitsune, who was tense all over, claws extended, and the scared-to-death tiger, who was trying to stand up in the wreckage his assailant had made out of the table. He could only watch in shock as his brother continued to snarl at the innocent bystander, before Knuckles tackled the vulpine and pinned him to the ground. Even though Tails's muscles were very strong and visibly defined from using them a lot while working on his machines, the scarlet echidna still had the home-field advantage when it came to raw strength, and had easily immobilized the 17-year old, sitting on his legs and forcing his arms to his sides. The cobalt hedgehog quickly sprinted over to the fox, before kneeling and looking into his downed brother's eyes, seeing nothing but pure rage.

"Tails, what's gotten into you?!" He said in disbelief, a worried and scared expression on his beige muzzle. The fox only screeched loudly at him, completely blinded by rage. Sonic was taken aback by his own brother's response to his presence, and was horribly confused as to what to do. He looked up at the echidna, who was having slight trouble restraining the vulpine. "He...He doesn't recognize me..." He said softly, a hint of the beginning of tears in his azure eyes. Knuckles ignored him, focusing on his furious captive. The hedgehog tried leaning over so his furred chest was close to the fox's nose, hoping that his familiar scent would help Tails calm down. It seemed to be working, as the fox's furious growling seemed to gradually quiet down to just frequent panting, and his struggling against Knuckles stopped completely. The tiger Tails had injured was advising the others to cease their attempts to grab the fox's tails, lest they be attacked as well, and they easily agreed, shocked by the recent display. The officers walking here and there did nothing to apprehend the fox, (Knuckles had it covered) partially because he was technically being sexually harassed, as pulling on a Mobian's tail has essentially the same meaning as slapping them on the rump. Of course, the fox did not retaliate from being sexually harassed, as the officers thought, but rather from his own personal anger of those who considered him a "Mutant".

* * *

After a few moments, the fox had calmed down, and was upset and confused from his assault on an innocent bystander. Since it was technically half-time in their bowling game, Team Sonic was sitting on one side of a square table and enjoying some snacks. Of course, the 17-year old kitsune didn't feel like eating, and simply stared at the bowl of melted cheese and tortilla chips in front of him. He placed his head in his hand, upset.

"Heh, Tails, if you don't eat those nachos quick, they'll get co-..." Sonic started, before seeing the first tear fall from the fox's eyes. He took his glove off and placed his blue-furred hand on his back, trying to help the fox's mood. He found it helped his brother a lot more to feel the body heat of his hand when he was providing sympathy for him, so a long time ago, when the fox was 13 and had four tails, he tried taking off his glove before touching him. It became an instinct after years of doing it, so there was rarely an instance when Sonic didn't take off his glove before trying to calm someone. "Tails...It's okay, really... They were technically sexually harassing you. That's why the officers forgave you, because it wasn't your fault." He just barely heard the kitsune whisper "I'm a freak..." under his whimpering, and started rubbing the fox's back, trying to mend his disrupted mental state. "Really... Knuckles attacks people too when they abuse him." The fox cringed when he heard the hedgehog say "attack", as it brought back horrible memories.

Sonic's hand continued to glide over the fox's somewhat-large back muscles, which he had aquired from years of working with machines. In fact, his entire body was rather musclebound. His strength paled in comparison to Knuckles, who had gained super strength from lifting heavy objects frequently, primarily in a Gym, which explained why the echidna easily incapacitated him. The fox shuddered violently, and he pushed away his bowl of nachos before laying his arms onto the table and resting his head on them.

"You're not a freak, Tails... All of this is normal for you..." The scarlet echidna said sympathetically, and, sitting on the other side of the fox, layed his ungloved hand on his nearest shoulder. You could easily tell the white vulpine was crying, as he was trembling, the fur on his arms beginning to dampen with tears. The hedgehog had been caring for the canine all his life, treating him somewhat like a child along with acting like a big brother. When he had first met the kit, he wasn't ready, or at least he thought he wasn't. He was only 10 years old, living all by himself in a medium-sized house, separated from the rest of the abusive world around him. Everyone made fun of him for having blur fur. _Everyone_. He spent most of his nights crying himself to sleep from his failed attempts at socializing with the Humans and other Mobians, but that all changed just a few days after he found Tails, an abandoned two-tailed kit trying in vain to sleep on the cold forest floor. He took the little fox home and gave him a warm bed, and, having absolutely no other friends, started the treat the baby kit like a son. He initially thought he wasn't ready, but he soon found that he indeed was, as he took an excellent job in caring for another life, a life of a person just like him. The kit had two tails and was in the exact same situation he was in, being shunned by everyone else. But the hedgehog soon announced that he had adopted the tiny vulpine as a little brother to anyone who asked, forming a bond with him that was so strong it could never, ever break. And now, even when the fox is seventeen years old, he was _still _the cobalt hedgehog's little brother, and still needed him.

"...I... I don't belong here..." The fox mumbled shakily, his voice muffled by his arms. There wasn't a sniffle to be heard, but the cobalt hedgehog could easily tell that his little bro was trying to suppress his feelings. He was trying to make himself seem like he wasn't extremely upset, but to anyone who knew him well, it was blaringly obvious that he was putting a huge effort into keeping a straight voice. He began whimpering softly, his body still shaking with sadness, and Sonic moved his hand up to the kitsune's neck, squeezing the back of it softly. The cerulean hedgehog knew exactly what to do when the white kitsune was upset, from all these years he had spent with him, and his sadness never persisted for more than five minutes with the blue spikeball around. He almost couldn't recognize the fox with his head down, due to his changed body and all, but he knew that right when he sees that kind, humble face, BAM. It was Tails again.

"Tails... I can guarantee you, there is nothing wrong with you... Please, just keep it together... For me, okay?..." Sonic whispered softly into the old kit's ear, which seemed to lessen his troubles, as he turned a helpless eye at the hedgehog, swimming with tears. "Don't hate on yourself... If there was anything wrong with you, you wouldn't have friends like us..." The cobalt mammal's eyes were so warm that they were like little flames, and the fox could almost feel his fur warming up.. The kitsune's trembling lessened somewhat, and he lifted his head from his arms slightly, staring back at his brother's loving azure eyes with his upset sapphire ones. "I think you're perfect the way you are... You're my little bro... _my _little bro..." Tears began flowing from the hedgehog's eyes. He was so proud of Tails... Proud of how he turned out, even with all those people making fun of him when he was little, and those staring at him now. He wasn't going to let him feel alone in the world, because he's not. He was speaking softly so his voice sounded smooth and reassuring, instead of peppy and a little cocky like if he was speaking louder. Tails, shaking violently, suddenly lunged to his side and embraced the hedgehog, burying his face into his big bro's beige chest and letting out a muffled cry, just like he did a long time ago when he was little. Sonic smiled and placed an arm on the kitsune's back, trying to calm him. The fox's emotions were incredibly unstable due to three things; His shy, timid nature, his teenage horomones, AND how everyone else treated him. Most people his age only had the second one, but his little bro had eight tails, and is in constant fear of the future, which probably made it hard for him to keep together at times.

"It's okay Tails... Just let it out..." The hedgehog sibilated, and the fox responded with a muffled cry, pressing farther into his chest. Sonic held in a cough; the fox was almost crushing him with his strong embrace, probably due to his large arm muscles. But no matter how physically mature he gets, he'll always be shy, timid little Tails on the inside, the blue hedgehog knew for sure. It wasn't all that strange for a little brother to end up superior in a way to the bigger brother, and in this case, it was indeed upper body strength. A little over two and a half minutes passed before the kit finally calmed down and stopped trembling, releasing the hedgehog. His bigger bro gasped and coughed for a few seconds, trying to catch his squeezed-out breath, before returning to the fox, looking into his beautiful sapphire blue eyes. He laid a hand on the fox's shoulder.

"C'mon now, show me a smile..." He said happily, putting on a grin himself. A smile crept across Tails's muzzle, and he nodded, showing that he was calm now.

"So...Why were you....coughing?..." The white kit inquired softly, raising an eyebrow, but still retaining his bright smile. The hedgehog looked nervously to his left.

"Uhh... Well, it's just that you're so strong, and you were... Eh heh heh... Crushing me?" He muttered, rubbing his head spines, causing his little brother to chuckle brightly. "You gonna eat those nachos?" Oddly, said snack was still somewhat warm, although it wasn't STEAMING like it was moments ago. The fox looked back at the cheesy snack, and picked up a chip with his thumb and index finger.

"Won't this get all over my fur?" Tails asked, looking at the cobalt hedgehog once more. Grinning, he slowly pointed at Knuckles, who had his face fur covered with barbeque sauce from the chicken wings he had been eating. The echidna swallowed and turned his attention to the two mammals staring at him.

"What?"

Tails broke out in laughter, completely eliminating any sadness that still remained in the kitsune's mind, but Knuckles, clueless as he was, had no idea that his face was covered in the spicy sauce. Sonic's mood lit up as well when he saw that his little brother's tails were fluttering once again, a clear indication that he was happy, and he proceeded to munch on the six chili dogs on his plate. Tails eventually slipped one of the nachos into his mouth, and, finding that they were delicious, continued to eat them. All the food vanished in just a few minutes, leaving all three mammals with something on their face. Tails was putting an effort into trying to lick the cheese off his face fur, Sonic had washed the chili off his, and Knuckles didn't care, tapping his fingers on the table impatiently. Eventually the white fox gave up his attempts, and followed in Sonic's footsteps to the washroom, where he proceeded to wash off his face as well. Not being as tidy with water as the hedgehog, when he had come back, his entire face was drenched, which made the scarlet echidna laugh slightly.

"Yo Knuckles, you gonna wash that stuff off your face?" Sonic asked, motioning to his own face. The echidna shrugged his shoulders, still not caring. After moments of Sonic and Tails convincing him that it was distracting to everyone, the red mammal finally gave up and washed the BBQ sauce off, coming back with a muzzle that was cleaner than before he had started eating.

Team Sonic walked back up to the bowling area, grabbing their respectively-colored balls and stepping up to the alley. Sonic, his name being at the top of the scoreboard, went first, tossing the ball that was the same shade of shiny cobalt as he was down the lane, before it curved to the left and flew straight into the gutter, rolling to the side of the pins into the back. The blue hedgehog did a facepalm as the two animals behind him broke into a fit of giggles at his mistake.

"Aww, come ON!" He yelled unsatisfactorily as the machine sent his ball back to him, before he grabbed it, hoping to get a spare. Sonic's low upper body strength certainly did not help him with bowling, as he usually didn't throw it hard enough, and it rolled to the left or right of the pins, sometimes even stopping right in front of them. He threw the heavy object with all his might, just _barely_ getting a strike, or in this case, a spare. Tails was up next. He, much to his initial disagreement, took a white bowling ball, stepping up to the lane. He reared back, before swinging his arm down and releasing the ball at the lowest point, the ball flying into the pins and scattering them all over the back wall. BING. Another strike. That was six in a row! He grinned again, throwing his arms up for a short period as the others applauded him, before returning to his seat. He heard Knuckles mutter "Show-off..." As they passed eachother, and the kitsune chuckled at the echidna's jealousy. Knuckles didn't have much luck. The first time, he threw the ball up _above _the pins, and it flew straight into the back. Then he did it again a second time, getting a zero for that round and the other two laughing at him. In short, Sonic was slightly too weak, Knuckles was a tad uncoordinated, and Tails was right in the middle.

When Sonic's turn floated around again, he brought his bowling ball back, then forward, and sharply twisted his hand counter-clockwise right before releasing. This caused the ball to slide to the left, before suddenly curving to the right, earning the hedgehog a strike, and a excited "Yesss!" escaped his throat. Tails stepped up, and as usual, threw it as hard and accurate as he could, and got yet another strike. That's seven in a row. The fox was getting very close to getting a perfect game, which made him giddy and proud of himself, and his streak of perfect bowls had indeed attracted the attention of many, which made him slightly self-concious. He didn't know why this was so easy for him... Maybe it was his, eh, "chakra" or something, enhancing his strength. The scarlet echidna quickly bowled a spare and sat back down without a word, still a little bit grumpy from his thoughts on the kit "Showing off" to everyone. But he wasn't showing off. If anything, he'd rather these people NOT look at him, as they were probably looking at his eight fluttering tails, wondering why they existed so numerously. There were quite a few people among the crowd, both humans and mobians, and Sonic could _swear _that cute purple female fox was staring at his li'l bro. Well, the kitsune _was _pretty attractive, with his muscular body and all. It sometimes wondered the cobalt hedgehog why girls weren't swooning around the fox, but then he remembered how many tails he possessed, and this probably deterred any girls who fancied him on sight.

Sonic stepped up again, without a bowling ball, preparing to execute the maneuver he tried back in frame 5. But before he could jump toward the pins, the cheetah on the intercom reminded him not to do that, as it was dangerous. Of course, being a danger-lover, the spiky mammal didn't listen, and tried it again, earning another strike on his score. The machine spat him out much quicker than before, but with much more power, as he was literally fired out from the slot, flying into the crowd and knocking several people over. After he recovered, he was indeed dazed once more, and was caustically trying to steady himself on the edge of a seat. The white kitsune stepped up himself, and launched the bowling ball from his fingertips, earning yet another strike, his eighth, to match the number of his tails. He silently hoped this would not attract more attention as the crowd cheered and mumbled at the same time, but cautious as to not touch the white vulpine after what happened earlier that night. He was rather happy that no one was grabbing his tails now, and could safely relax, err, sort of, without fear that people would abuse him like that. Knuckles was looking back and forth at the crowd, analyzing it.

"You sure you're comfortable with all these people around, Miles?" The echidna asked, and the fox nodded, his fur being blown about by the AC. He was sitting in a chair that was leaning backwards, and he had his hands behind his head, enjoying the limelight with his eyes closed. Knuckles shrugged with an "Okay", before throwing his bowling ball into the set of pins, this time nailing them right between the first and second pins, knocking them all down in a strike. "Finally!" He exclaimed, excited. The cobalt hedgehog, finally steadying himself, walked over to the kitsune and placed a hand on one of his reclined arms, panting from the exertion of the bowling ball mechanism's relentless tumbling. This attracted the vulpine's attention, and he opened his eyes and looked at the blue mammal, raising an eyebrow. He fell down, which made the fox chuckle, before picking himself up and trying to relieve himself of his dizziness. He stumbled over to the bowling ball return area, before picking up his cobalt bowling ball and swinging it behind him. He swung it forward, but threw the bowling ball high up into the air, causing it to make a sickening _BANG _as it hit the lane and rolled down to the pins, slowly, before knocking down all of them but the one in the back right. When his bowling ball returned, he threw it again, and it slid into the final pin smoothly, but the force of the swing caused him to fall backwards onto the concrete, still dazed. Knuckles helped him up, before they walked back to the lower area, tapping Tails on the shoulder and pointing at the bowling area. The white fox got up out of his comfortable position, before beginning to walk up to the alley.

Suddenly, the crowd gasped, before falling silent save for a few mumbles, all of them backing away slightly from one particular female purple fox. This attracted the attention of the white kitsune, and he laid eyes on said vixen, startled.

"What? All I said was that I thought he was kinda sex-...Uh..." The vixen vocalized to the crowd in a beautiful, light voice, before stopping her sentence short, realizing the vulpine was looking at her. The two foxes locked eyes for a few seconds, Tails's cute sapphire eyes, and the vixen's amythest ones. The female fox grinned nervously, before taking a few steps back, disappearing behind a wall. The crowd continued buzzing now that the interjecting vixen was gone, and Tails was simply left confused. Someone actually thought he was... Sexy? He felt a blush heat up his face, and he looked away, dumbstricken. Sonic flashed him a double thumbs-up, but the kitsune tried to forget what just happened, although the redness on his white muzzle clearly betrayed that he was still thinking about it. He picked up his white bowling ball and earned another strike in a flash, his NINTH one. The fox winced as a scary thought came to him. Nine... Just like how many tails he'll have in the end. But what will happen then? An extra tail, a changed appearance, and great power? Or will he go completely insane, become destructive and evil, and kill everyone he ever loved? He walked back to his seat, an extremely scared and worried look on his face. He put a hand on his forehead, trying to calm himself.

"Wow, Miles, that's like, NINE strikes! I mean, that's a lot! Really, Nine is quite a... Oh..." The hedgehog exclaimed, at first excited, but then realizing the future event he had mistakenly referred to. The fox's breathing became slightly heavier, and he looked up at the hedgehog, who had an apologetic look on his blue face. "I...I'm sorry... I completely forgot..." They had only four days left. Four days before Tails got his ninth tail, four days before anything they had feared could happen. And it was nighttime, so really only three days and a few hours left, as it was about ten o' clock. He put an arm around the fox's shoulder, trying to convince him that he really was, truly sorry. The sound of pins flying everywhere was heard as Knuckles bowled another strike, and was currently whooping it up, unaware of the situation behind him. He turned around to beckon the hedgehog to step up and take his turn. "Really, Tails... Nothing's gonna change when that comes around... Nothing, I swear..." He said softly to his foxy brother, before regretfully leaving his side to take his turn. He kept taking glances behind him to see if Tails was okay, before he finally picked up his blue ball and quickly bowled it twice, getting a 4 and a 5. He ran quickly back to the white kitsune's side after he saw his score register on the board with a beep, spinning the scarlet echidna around cartoon-style as he passed.

"But...What if... What if I..." The fox said shakily, fearing the future.

"Shhh.... It's alright, Tails..." Sonic sibilated, prying the fox's hands off his cranium. One of his hands, his right one, was still ungloved, and he began stroking his little bro's furred head like a human would to a housepet. Tails calmed down quite fast at the hedgehog stroking the exact spot he needed, and looked down, no longer scared, but still somewhat worried. The crowd was watching the two mammals, probably thinking that the kitsune simply got frequent migraines, instead of being a shy fox that was worried about his future. "Now, you gonna get your tenth strike, or what?" The white kit almost smiled at the hedgehog's words, before getting up reluctantly, grabbing his bowling ball and walking to the alley. The crowd watched in anticipation as the fox proceeded to make an X on his scoreboard, cheering violently. Tails smiled, this was probably gonna be on the news. But his smile vanished just a split second later, realizing that if the kitsune's perfect game went on the news, that means that his low profile would vanish, and everyone would know about... His thoughts were interrupted as the machine returned his white bowling ball, the crowd's cheering escalating to a deafening roar. Oh right, these were the bonus rolls... He had to go again. Putting on a fake confident smile for the spectators, he launched the snow white sphere down the wood-shaving dusted lane, the ball slamming into the pins and knocking them over once more. Eleven strikes.

Tails winced as he saw the first flash of a camera, and his irises shrunk, his head quickly snapping to his left in an attempt to spy the source of the bright light. He found none. Gulping, he tried to keep still as many flashes captured his figure, his face contorted with dread. Just keep still, he told himself. They were just pictures. It's not like they mattered, right? The sound of the machine returning his ball was heard as everyone anticipated the kitsune's final strike, and perfect game. Each flash amplified his dread of being exposed to a large amount of the public instead of closed amounts, but he tried to keep a smile on his face, although his limp tails clearly betrayed his fear. He picked up his bowling ball, and prepared to throw his last strike, the crowd roaring. He released the sphere at the exact bottom of his underhanded swing, and it skidded down the alley instead of cleanly rolling, before slamming into only nine of the pins, one still standing. Wait, no, it was wobbling, rhythmically bobbing left and right, directly on the line between standing up and falling. The spectators fell silent as the last pin prepared to fall down or stay upright, and the only sound in the entire alley was the sound of the pin wobbling. It suddenly stopped wobbling, directly on the balance point, before slowly falling to the wooden floor. Eklaine's bowling alley was flooded with a deafening roar as the scoreboard flashed a seizureous "PERFECT GAME!!!" in red text with a background that was flashing between black and white. Cameras flashed, spectators cheered, and Knuckles gave him a bear hug, excited for the kitsune's once-in-a-lifetime-achievement. A tone was heard on the intercom.

_"Congratulations, Miles! You got a PERFECT SCORE, three hundred!! Hold on, I'll be right down there." _The cheetah up top said before he disappeared into the control room, the crowd quieting down somewhat as rickety footsteps were heard inside the pillar. The solid red metal door that said **"RESTRICTED", **opened prominently, and said cheetah walked out, holding a large golden trophy that consisted of a large cup with a bowling ball in it attached to the base, with two golden bowling pins sticking out at an angle to the left and right. The crowd smiled, knowing exactly who the trophy was for. The spotted mammal walked up to the fox, trophy in hand, before grinning friendlily.

"Hey there, Miles. In congratulations of your perfect game, something only a handful of people in the world have done, I present you with _this_ bowling trophy!" He announced, giving the kitsune the large hunk of what seemed like golden-colored plaster, and he took it semi-eagerly, not particularly fond of attracting so much attention. He looked behind the cheetah and to his left, to see Sonic grinning widely and pointing at his mouth with both hands, signaling the fox to smile. He did so, albeit reluctantly at first, and the crowd took many more pictures, the cameras flashing white at the young kit. "We'll have your name engraved on it shortly, but first, uh, what IS your name?" He said again, smiling congratulatory.

"M...My name is... Uh.... Miles "Tails" Prower..." Tails said somewhat-softly, a little bit embarrassed of his name. The cheetah beckoned to give him back the trophy, and the vulpine did so, before the cheetah took it back inside the door and sounds of engraving were heard. A few moments later, the cheetah re-emerged, sporting the trophy that now said "Miles "Tails" Prower" on the golden plaque on the front. The kitsune took it again, marveling at how the mammal actually spelled his name correctly, unlike most people he told his name to. He held the trophy high up above his head, grinning broadly.

_"YES!!" _He exclaimed excitedly, now happy at his achievement. The crowd roared again, many pictures being taken, so many that the fox was almost blinded by them. Sonic ran up to his side and gave him a quick hug, before prominently running back to his seat avoid being caught in his little bro's special moment.

* * *

Footsteps on the grass were heard as the group marched up to the front door of their house, Sonic turning the doorknob only to frown in dismay to find that it was locked. It was dark out, almost eleven o' clock, and it was very hard to see, as there was neither moon nor stars to illuminate the forest landscape. He put a hand on his chin, trying to remember where he had hidden the spare key. Tails was carrying his rather large trophy on his shoulder, smiling as he waited patiently behind his brother, who removed a red brick from the side of the wall and reached in. Sonic had convinced the kit to install that little secret compartment as a out-of-the-ordinary place to hide the spare key, as no one would really notice it, since they would think that the wall was solid. The compartment was brick-sized, hidden by another brick, one that had an inconspicuous white dot on it. Knuckles was leaning on one of the pillars holding up the awning for the front porch, partially relaxed as the electrical light illuminated the ground only just a little bit. The cobalt hedgehog retracted his hand, holding a single golden key, before inserting it into the lock, the door opening quite easily. He placed the key back in the secret compartment in the wall before covering it once more with the false brick, prominently opening the door and tiptoeing inside, followed by his two friends. He softly closed the door, locking it again from the inside, and put a finger to his mouth to signal the others to keep quiet. Jordan, the lavender hedgehog that they had all just met, was asleep in the guest room. Unlike most teenagers, he fell asleep quite early; at just nine o' clock, so the others had to be quite careful as to not disturb him, as he was a light sleeper.

"I'm gonna put this on the center of the shelf in my room... Heh heh..." Tails whispered, still giddy from his perfect game at the bowling alley just an hour ago. He used one of his shoes to pry the other off his foot, and then used his bare foot to pry off the other shoe, discarding them to the side with a kick. He wiggled his toes, happy to be out of those shoes that were practically attached to his foot from sweat. Sonic did not do as such, and tiptoed to the guest room to close the door softly so that their words would not wake the sleeping hedgehog. He walked back to the group, not as quietly now that the door was closed, and placed a hand on the kitsune's shoulder.

"Hey Tails, you might wanna take a shower, cuz I think I can smell ya'..." Sonic uttered, his little bro's "Fox scent" now very noticeable, as he had been sweating at the bowling alley all day. Said fox sniffed his shoulder, his face scrunching at the odd musky smell, before nodding at the hedgehog and taking his trophy to their shared room. He walked through the doorway and quickly positioned his bowling trophy in the gap in the center of his knick-knack shelf, before walking into the bathroom and flipping on the light switch, studying himself in the mirror. His body was somewhat-toned from how he worked with machines every couple days, his arm muscles being the most defined. His smile, a little pompous, vanished when he laid eyes the eight glowing appendages floating behind his back, reminded of how they had brought him so much trouble throughout the years. He was carefully controlling their movements as to not knock anything over, as they were very large, each one as big as his torso, which wasn't all that difficult in his large, roomy bathroom. He stepped into the shower, a large square that was eight feet across, before closing the door behind him, taking off his latex gloves and tossing them over the side to an unknown destination. He wrapped his white-furred hand around the nozzle that controlled the water, before turning it slowly, the metal contraption above him making a deep running sound before spouting out water onto his head. The water was extremely cold, and it quickly caught his attention, as he quickly turned the second knob to the left to increase the temperature of the water. It took a few seconds, but the sharp, freezing liquid quickly changed to a warm, soothing one as it flowed down through his fur, soaking it thoroughly. He moved the showerhead away from him, before taking the shampoo bottle that said "Head n' Shoulders" on it from the rack. There were several shampoos on the rack, all in different colors, as Sonic liked to try out every shampoo product he could find before settling with just one. He squeezed it from shoulder to shoulder, the white substance quickly rising to suds in reaction to the water matting his fur. He ran his hands through his fur, covering every part of it with the cleansing white bubbles. He ran his hands over his chest, under his arms, down onto his legs, and (with difficulty) onto his back, until his fur was completely white from the substance, before chuckling to himself and reaching up to the spout above him. He moved the shower nozzle back so it was spraying water on him again, and the suds were quickly washed away by the stream of clear liquid. The shampoo he was using was actually designed to combat dandruff, and although he didn't have the disease, he still used it, because it was the only shampoo that didn't irritate his skin. The others kind of, well, burned when he used them. They caused this _very _uncomfortable sensation that left the fox scratching at his fur, trying to remove the burning substance from his body, even after it wasn't there anymore. Perhaps "Head n' Shoulders" was a shampoo for sensitive skin. He shrugged to himself, before placing a hand on his chin, trying to remember what he does next when in the shower. His fur was completely soaked, and was washed downward from every point, leaving long, thin but long lines of fur hanging down from his limbs, although he wasn't focusing on that at the time. He heard footsteps, somewhat quickly at first, but then slowing down dramatically as they neared. He chuckled to himself, it was probably Sonic, still traumatized by the sound of water after what happened earlier today. He saw a shadow behind the opaque shower wall, and he could easily see it trembling.

"T-Tails? That's y-you in there, r-right?" He heard Sonic's voice mumble shakily.

"Mmh." He replied, a noise of approval. Sonic was waiting, opposite of eagerly, for his turn in the shower, actually wanting the fox to take longer and delay his own forced entrance into the water-streaked area. He observed the hedgehog's shadow open a bottle of sleeping peelz and take one prominently, as the spiky mammal could not get to sleep on his own; his mind was too active at night. Sonic knew that if he refused to go into the shower, the vulpine would _make _him do it, so he ceased to put up a fight of it after a while.

"Uhm... Tails... Uh... Do I _have _to take a shower tonight? I-I mean, you two scrubbed me pretty hard earlier today when I was covered in ash, s-so I don't think-"

"Nah Sonic, you still need to take one." Tails interrupted the hedgehog, who was trying to get out of his shower for the night. The hedgehog made a shocked noise.

"B-But that's not fair! I swear, I-I'm clean!" He said shakily once again, not believing what he was hearing. The vulpine chuckled out loud.

"If you _don't, _Knuckles and I will MAKE you." He threatened, reminding the hedgehog of his inferior strength to both of his friends. He whimpered, sitting on the ground and hugging his blue knees, still affected by his fear of water, after all these years. Tails turned off both knobs and opened the sliding door to the shower, water dripping off his furred body. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the hedgehog, who's eyes were wide open.

"Your turn!" He grinned evilly, grabbing the hedgehog by his arm. The cobalt mammal struggled, trying to escape his brother's grasp, but to no avail. He was too weak to resist. He was pulled into the shower, and despite his initial disapproval, he braced himself, standing still in the shower as the kitsune turned on both nozzles, and water poured onto the hedgehog's body, causing him to panic and shiver violently, even though the water was visibly hot, as there was steam emanating from it. The fox exited the shower, and closed the sliding door, uttering a short "Have fun!" before grabbing a super-sized towel and proceeding to rub it all over his body, ruffling his fur all over the place. It took a solid ten minutes to dry himself completely, but when he was done, he folded the towel and placed it back onto the rack. Sonic, just now beginning to wash himself, was whimpering still, causing the kit to chuckle. Sonic took a while to finish his shower, but eventually did, and shakily stepped out of the wet room, looking like he was about to throw up. Tails found this hilarious, doubling over from laughter, an act that might have irritated the hedgehog if he hadn't been feeling so nauseous. Inevitably, the cobalt mammal rushed over to the toilet and heaved, causing the fox's reproaching smile to fade into a abhorred expression as he watched the greenish-yellow liquid flow from his brother's throat. Sonic always acted like he was going to puke after a shower, but he never actually did until tonight, a bit unexpected for him. He eventually stopped hurling and flushed the toilet, staggering to the sink to wash his mouth out with mint-flavored Listerine to get that horrible taste out of his gullet.

"Hey Sonic, I think I still see a little dirt on your quills. Looks like you're gonna have to get back in the shower!" Tails joked, causing Sonic to spit out his mouthwash and stare at the fox, horrified. He chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh, I'm just kidding..." The hedgehog breathed a sigh of relief, before starting to brush his teeth, the kitsune following suit. Even with Tails's thorough style of brushing, this did not take very long, and the two brothers walked into their bedroom.

The kitsune raised an eyebrow at the sight that instead of two separate beds, there was one, king-sized bed in the middle of their room. He looked at Sonic, confused.

"Yeah, uh, Tails... Knuckles convinced me to move our separate beds out of this room and move in the king-sized one we had in the cellar. He told me that it would "Strengthen our family bond" or something." The hedgehog said, waving his hands back and forth at the emphasized words. He really had no problem with sleeping in the same bed as the cobalt hedgehog, as they were brothers, and therefore had the right to, but he was still used to sleeping in a separate bed, and was a little bit reluctant to change his current setup. He chuckled as he realized that Knuckles probably did all the moving, as Sonic was a tad too weak to do so. He walked to the right side of the bed, and pulled the sheets off in a corner-like fashion, before slowly climbing in, reveling at how soft it felt. The size was basically his bed and Sonic's bed laid out side-by-side, and he could have plenty of sleeping room, so he really had no gripes about it. The blue blur turned out the lights and crawled into the other side of the bed, pulling the sheets up over him and getting comfy in the almost solid darkness. The only light was that of the moon, streaming in through the window. "So, you wanna talk about anything before we go to sleep? Like, maybe... Uh..." His voice became slower and softer. "...Your....Tails?..."

The pre-kyuubi's ears folded, although you could barely see it in the moonlight. "...No..." He muttered softly, not wanting this conversation to go any further. The hedgehog looked at him with a concerned expression, before reaching across the bedspread and laying a hand on his furred shoulder.

"Really, Tails... I only want to help you..." he said softly, but the fox took his hand off of his shoulder and turned away, exhaling.

"Goodnight, Sonic." He said somewhat sternly, but at the same time sadly, and the blue hedgehog understood, turning the other way and fidgeting to get comfy. He sighed, hoping that Tails would understand that he's not an enemy.

"Goodnight little bro..." He called quietly, before gradually falling asleep, as did the white vulpine.

The moonlight continued to stream in the window, illuminating the two mammals by only a small amount as they slumbered.

* * *

**Me: Man, the ending of that felt kinda rushed. :/**

**Sonic: Hey everyone, I bet you can't spot the Meme reference Sparkz made near the end! :D**

**Me: (Slaps Sonic) Shh. :3 I'm sure they already saw it.**

**Sonic: (Is rubbing his face) Ow...**

**Me: I'll have the next chapter up soon! :D**


	4. First day at work

**Me: Thanks for the reviews, everyone! :) And without further ado, I present to you... THE NEXT CHAPTER.**

**Sonic: Yeah, there's a-(Smack)**

**Me: :U Quiet Maurice. You really have a problem with keeping other's secrets, don't you?**

**Sonic: DON'T CALL ME MAURICE!**

**Me: ;D Oh don't worry, Sonic, I was just kidding.**

**Sonic: (Steaming)**

**Me: Anyway, since a day has passed, that means... THREE DAYS. 8D Three days before Tails gets his ninth tail, OH yeah!**

**Sonic: (Huffs) Anyway, Sparkz has something to tell you all.**

**Me: And that would be, I do NOT take requests on what NOT to write. :| I'm sorry, but if I wanna put in OC romance, I'll put in OC romance. I daydream all day at school about where I should take the plot next, and sometimes it involves some pretty weird stuff, and I always consider it. So, sorry, I'll put whatever I want to in this story. :P It's MY story, dawg.**

**Also, be sure to check out the Progress meter thing I'm doing on my profile to see if I'm actually working on the story or slacking off! :D**

**And on a side note, I know absolutely nothing about cars. NOTHING. I don't even know how to drive one! xD So plz forgive the fact that I have no details in the car repairing stuff.**

**Henjoy!**

**(BY the way, when I said Tails's tails were as big as his torso... Uh... Now that I think about it, that's not exactly true. They're more like maybe a little more than half the size of his torso. xD)**

**---------------**

**White**

**Chapter 4**

**By Sparkz**

The sun slowly crept over the horizon, the darkness of night fading to make way for the light of day, illuminating the forest landscape. The light streamed in the window above the king-sized bed which held a cool blue hedgehog and an off-white fox, sleeping soundly under the orange comforter. While the fox's eyes were not in the path of the light, the hedgehog's were, and his eyelids creaked open slightly, awoken by the blinding white stream of photons. Without moving his head, his eyes drifted over to the clock he had bought two days before, the green display showing a bright 7:25 with a small AM in the bottom right corner. Sonic, realizing that it was almost time for his little bro to get up, attempted to move his arm to tap him on the shoulder, but... He couldn't. There was something heavy on it. In fact, he hadn't remembered the bed being this soft, warm, and furry... He looked at his arm, to see that there was an almost-white furred appendage lying on top of it, and his eyes followed the appendage down over his back and under him, seeing that it curved up on his other side and rested on the side of his waist. He tried moving his other body parts, to realize that he could not; there was something constricting them as well. He moved his head slightly to look under the comforter, to see that Tails's namesakes were curled up around him, holding him close like a teddy... hedgehog. He gave a small smile, thinking _'I love you too...' _at his brother, before trying to push them off, not succeeding. Unlike Sonic, Knuckles could have easily escaped the fox's grasp by just pushing a little bit, but the hedgehog's low body strength rendered him unable to escape. Their position was very comfortable for the blue hedgehog, as it was nice and warm, and the fur-on-fur feeling only made it that much softer, but he needed to get up and wake Knuckles so he could cook breakfast, and he couldn't as long as he was trapped like this. He tried speaking, but all that came out was a dry rasp, as his vocal cords were not used to speech yet.

"T...Ta....Tail....Tails..." He whispered, barely, as his vocal cords slowly woke up. C'mon Sonic, make words! "Ta...Tails... Wake...Wake up...Little...Bro..." He could make quiet sounds now, and was trying to wake the slumbering vulpine so he could release him from his remarkably soft death grip. He attempted to make louder sounds. "Tails...Tails!...Wake up!..." The fox fidgeted at hearing his name, but didn't awaken. The hedgehog sighed quietly, this was going to take a while. It was, indeed, very heartwarming to see his brother cuddling him like that, and anyone who saw would have found it cute, but the vulpine slept a lot, and he couldn't wait another hour for him to wake up, as he had not actually set his clock for an alarm yet, and it wasn't going to go off. He had a mind to struggle to try and wake the kitsune through physical contact, but the softness kept him from moving much.

"Tails!... Wake up!..." He said, starting to sound like his old self again. The fox fidgeted once more, his hold on the blue hedgehog tightening, and Sonic coughed loudly, now having trouble breathing as the fox's many appendages constricted his small body.

"Tails!! Wake up!..." Damn Tails's heavy sleeping. He gasped for air, trying with all his might to stop his brother from choking him.

"Damnit Tails, wake up!!" He yelled as loud as he could, causing his brother's eyes to snap open, his hold on the hedgehog loosening. The fox looked bewildered at his brother's struggling, apparently unaware that he was constricting him. When Sonic saw that he was awake, he stopped struggling and smiled at him nervously.

"Uhm... Bro?... Can you... Let me go?..." He inquired, and the fox raised an eyebrow in response, still unaware of what was happening. The hedgehog gulped, not wanting to mention his brother's tails, but it seems that there was no other choice. "Your... your tails are... wrapped around me..." He said, slowly.

The fox frowned, troubled, releasing the hedgehog. He uttered a quiet "I...I'm sorry...". Sonic got up out of the bed and stretched, happy that his limbs were now free, before looking back at the vulpine reassuringly.

"No sweat, Tails. It's alright, it was kinda cute anyway." He piped, trying to convince the fox that what he did wasn't a bad thing. True, it was strange that it had happened, since the kit usually never does this, but it wasn't exactly out-of-the-ordinary for foxes, so it could be forgiven easily. Nevertheless, the sentence did not help the vulpine's mood, as he turned around in his bed, looking away as his white ears folded. Sonic sat down on the very bed he was trapped in moments before, placing a hand on the fox's shoulder. Tails looked at him, apparently very sad and embarrassed. "Really... It doesn't matter... I'm actually happy to see that you love me that much..." He sibilated, stroking his little brother's ears.

"But... Y-you were choking... A-and it's _my _f-fault..." Tails stuttered quietly, shuddering. The hedgehog shushed him.

"Nah, Tails... You didn't do anything wrong... Now, I'm gonna go wake up Knuckles, wanna come with me?" The kitsune started a very quiet purring, probably because of the blue mammal rubbing his ears like that, and he continued, trying to cheer him up. The fox liked it when someone rubbed his ears, as it always made him happy and comfortable. "C'mon, now show me a smile..." Sonic beckoned, and his little bro gave just that, enjoying his touch. The blue hedgehog eventually convinced the fox to get up out of bed, and they walked down the hallway to Knuckles's room. Knuckles's bed was a queen-size with a blue comforter, and he was snoring rather loudly on it, drooling on his pillow. The cobalt hedgehog grinned mischeviously and walked to the side of the bed, bringing his mouth close to where the echidna's ears supposedly were.

"HEY KNUCKLEHEAD!!" He yelled, causing the scarlet mammal to yelp and shoot upright in his bed. His surprised expression quickly changed to a growl at the hedgehog as he realized what had happened, and he glared at the spiked mammal. Sonic's mischievous grin became a nervous one in a flash.

"Agh, Damnit Sonic!" He shouted, about to punch the stupid hedgehog, but the spikeball quickly zipped to the back wall to avoid it. The echidna sighed, stepping out of bed, before making his way to the kitchen to make some flapjacks. Sonic and Tails followed him, and were waiting patiently at the table, the hedgehog rather preferring chili dogs, and the vulpine, being a carnivore, just preferring meat in general. Nevertheless, the scarlet mammal poured the pancake batter into the skillet, the tan-colored blobs bubbling and sizzling as they cooked. Tails licked his lips in anticipation of the pastries, the aroma of the dough quickly filling the air in the kitchen and eventually the house. Ahh, Knuckles's pancakes... He always cooks them with olive oil, which makes them taste better in the fox's opinion, since they are slightly more moist than usual.

"Maaan, I can smell those pancakes from here..." The cobalt hedgehog moaned, his mouth watering. Knuckles flipped the pancakes, revealing the golden-brown cooked sides and letting the uncooked sides sizzle on the black metal. It wasn't long before the pancakes were done, and the scarlet echidna, wearing that same chef's hat from yesterday, brought a large tray covered with a dozen of them to the table, and set them down in front of the two starving mammals. Out of the three of them, none really liked to pour maple syrup on their flapjacks, so Knuckles didn't bother to get it out of the fridge. The three mammals dug in, Sonic rolling his up and eating them like chili dogs, Tails eating them daintily like a civilized person, and Knuckles shoving them down his throat whole. Knuckles finished first, and belched loudly, before uttering a short "'Scuse me.", while the cobalt hedgehog was still trying to down his, and the whitish vulpine wasn't even close.

"So, Chef Knucklehead, you make the best pancakes _ever!_" Sonic complimented, his mouth still full, and said echidna grinned broadly, happy to see that others enjoyed his cooking. Eventually, the blue and white animals finished their pancakes, and Tails, actually awake in time for work, walked back to his and Sonic's room to grab some clothes. He turned on the radio on his new alarm clock, before opening his closet and extracting a black t-shirt which said "Feeling Lucky?" on it, surrounded by four-leaf clovers, and a pair of black jeans with a large slit cut into the back for his tails.

**"HEEEEH-LLO STATION SQUARE!! It's a BEAUTIFUL Monday morning, just past eight o' clock, and I hope you're all ready to go back to work and school! Heh... I would hate Mondays if I didn't love my job! This just in, a fox with white fur named Miles scored a perfect game last night at Eklaine's bowling alley, and got a big shiny golden trophy for it! We're still not sure exactly where he lives, but I'm pretty sure..." **The radio announcer trailed off, and Tails grinned at being reminded of his achievement, taking a glance at his shiny trophy resting on a shelf behind him. He put his jeans on both legs at once, slipping his appendages through the slit in the back, before donning his T-shirt and socks and shoes.

**"...Apparently he lives really far away, 'cause we never see him walk into a building at night or anything, and..." **The announcer's voice got quieter, as if he was covering his mic. **"Yeah? ...Uh huh... Are you sure? He has THAT many?" **The white vulpine frowned, apparently whoever was talking to the announcer was talking about his numerous namesakes. The announcer's voice got louder again. **"Wellll, I don't have anything else to say. No, I'm not going to tell everyone that, that's a HUGE invasion of pri-... You know what, YOU shut up! I would probably screw up his reputation if I told everyone that! NO! Get off my back!" **The radio station was replaced with a large droning beep, probably due to "Technical difficulties", or more probably, an unexpected argument. The fox chuckled, rolling his shoulders to get used to the tight piece of fabric on his fur, before steady walking out of his room, passing through the kitchen once more.

"Going to work li'l bro?" Sonic asked, smiling brightly. The kitsune grinned back and nodded, making a short "Mm-hmm!", somewhat excited about his first real day at work. The hedgehog stood up out of his seat, having previously been talking with Knuckles, and patted the fox's back lightly, wishing him good luck. Tails said his goodbyes to the two, before walking out the front door and starting up his run to Station Square and his workplace, Powahouse Pro Automobile Co. He revved up his namesakes, and shot off down the dirt road, a streak of white to anyone nearby.

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

In about two and a half minutes, he reached station square, and slowed down the rotation of his tails, gradually coming to a windy stop in front of his workplace once again, just like he had on Friday. He had a good feeling about today, like this day was gonna go absolutely perfectly. Grinning, he casually walked into the rotary door into the lobby and up to the counter, where the same squirrel who had embarrassed him three days ago was standing, typing on her computer quietly.

"Hey there. You still got a problem with me, or are you over that?" He asked, an elbow on the counter, his good mood somewhat grout by the memories of how the squirrel pissed him off. He retained a smile on his face nevertheless, not letting those memories ruin his bliss. The squirrel turned to him, and upon seeing his face, she fell into a gawk. Tails, smiling rather widely, raised his eyebrows and moved his head closer, causing the squirrel to rear back, before the kitsune chuckled and walked over to the chrome door leading to the garage that said "EMPLOYEES ONLY!" on it. He opened the door via a handle, before entering, his eight namesakes disappearing inside the doorway. The medium-sized hallway leading up to the garage was completely lined with a beautiful cream-colored carpet, on the floor, walls, and ceiling. There were fancy wooden shelves, like shelves you would find in an Oriental restaurant, holding several knickknacks, including pictures of employees, small clocks, and maybe a few tools here and there, bolted to the carpeted walls. There were lamps shining a calming vanilla light bolted higher-up on the walls, between the shelves, making the hallway very soft and comforting overall. This was no doubt to calm the employees before they entered the garage, so they would have a clear state of mind when they began working, and Tails was no exception. He let out a calmed breath, taking in the soft enviroment around him, before continuing to walk down the hallway, his shoes making soft thumps on the carpet as he trodded to the electrically lit cement room at the exit. The same red convertible that Alexa was working on on Friday was still there, although it was noticably more vibrant than before, obviously having been touched-up since he left that day. But this time, Alexa wasn't there...

"Alexa?" The whitish vulpine called, pondering the location of the onyx-furred feline. He received no answer. He spotted a white sign on the wall with red text that read "Please take off your shoes, and socks, when entering.", and raised an eyebrow at the garage's policy. Nevertheless, he complied, and removed his shoes and socks, revealing his furred feet. With his shoes off, and him being a fox, he made almost no sound when walking normally, and the only sound other than the constant whirring of the AC was the soft sound of his own breathing, as there was apparently no one else present in the building. The vulpine continued to trot with uncontrollable silence over to the cement hallway he was almost roasted in the other day, seeing that it was still charred black from the flames. A heavy scent of embers masked the air, reminding him of how he almost died there, but was saved by... The weird energy he had. What was it called again, Oh yes, err, _chakra?_ It was certainly a strange name... His thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone chiming, slightly muffled by his pocket. He had a text message. He extracted the crimson-trimmed black device from his pocket, and read the message on-screen, which said it was from Sonic. He chuckled and opened it, and the message expanded until it bordered the screen.

_Uh...Tails? Are you doin' okay? Cuz the thing is, you only have three days and all, and I hope you're not too nervous..._

The fox choked, suddenly finding meaning in the hedgehog's message. He was right, it was only three days... Three days until he became a Kyuubi, three days until his life changed forever... Supposedly. According to old folk tales, he was supposed to have a somewhat slight change of appearance to come with his ninth tail. His irises were supposed to change color to a violent blood-red, his pupils were supposed to become vertical slits, his claws were going to extend supposedly a whole inch, and, of course, he was going to grow an additional tail. With a shocked expression, he read the rest of the message.

_because __**I**__ am. I'm __**very **__nervous, Tails... I don't want anything to happen to you, I couldn't bear it... Please, just tell me you're doin' alright..._

Tails was too distracted by his own anguished thoughts to reply like the cobalt spikeball asked, and simply flipped his cell phone closed, slipping it back into his black jeans pocket. His breathing became very shaky in a very short time, and he slowly padded back to the red convertible, kneeling on the ground and clutching his forehead, looking downward. He shut his eyes tight, trying to at least push aside his fear of the future. He suddenly heard light footsteps, like those of a cat, approach him from the rear, but he paid no mind to it, a small whimper escaping his throat.

"...Miles? Is that you?" A light voice, a female's, inquired. He whimpered again. He didn't want to have a ninth tail... What if something happened? What if he lost control? "...What's wrong?" The voice asked again, and he was now sure it was Alexa's, the very cat he had been searching for moments before. He felt a hand lay on his shoulder, and the young kit turned his head just enough to see the black feline standing behind him, a concerned look on her face. Tails was like a small child in terms of mental state; so fragile and easily breakable. There were crystal tears streaming from his eyes, his teeth grit. Alexa's concerned expression intensified, and she softly removed his hands from his head, before kneeling down and scratching his neck lightly with her long, gentle claws. His numerous tails were lying limp on the ground behind him, easily showing his inner feelings. Tails could never truly hide his feelings, because his namesakes always revealed his current emotion, no matter how well he tried to hide it. They always became limp and dragged across the ground when he was sad, raised themselves and moved quite stiffly when he was angry, and simply fluttered back and forth when he was happy. The cat gradually raised her clawed fingertips from the back of his neck to behind his ears, causing him to not breathe so shakily at the familiar sensation of someone scratching behind them. Maybe it was because he was a canine, and that was a sensitive spot for him, but then again, his entire ears usually brought a pleasant feeling when they were handled by another being; an anatomical perk his brother had always used to calm him when he was upset. But he didn't know that _everyone _knew about it... Was there a _book _on Foxes that everyone could read?

"...Now, tell me what's wrong..." She sibilated, continuing to scratch his ears. But he wasn't going to tell her, it was too personal. She would probably freak out if he said anything about it, and just avoid him all the more.

"...I...I can't..." He replied between shallow breaths, hoping the feline would understand. But deep down he knew she wouldn't. He hardly knew Alexa, and she hardly knew him, so he couldn't talk about anything personal with her. She was the CEO of Powahouse A.R.C., and a very good CEO at that; she wasn't strict at all, and always lent a helping hand to those who needed it. She made a worried sound, and looked around the fox's shoulder to see his face.

"...You can't?..." She asked softly, obviously attempting to provoke the kitsune to spill the beans about something so private. He shook his head, clutching his jeans, before taking a deep breath.

"You'll... never understand..." He got back on his feet, his eyes still red from tears, his tails dragging on the cement floor. He looked down slightly, and his form assumed that of one who was very depressed. "It... It's personal..."

She nodded, although the fox couldn't see the action. "...I understand, you don't want to talk about it right now...That's alright..." The onyx feline placed another hand on her new employee's shoulder, but he shook it off. The phone in his pocket blinged again, and he took it out, opening it to read the message.

_Tails? Are you there?_

He quickly texted _Yeah, I'm okay._, the biggest lie on Earth, before closing the device and placing it back in his pocket, turning around to face Alexa, so upset he looked angry. His teeth were grit, easily showing his fangs. "J-just....just go a-away..." The cat did no such thing, and placed a hand on the middle of his shirt.

"It's okay, Miles... Calm down..." She said oh-so-softly, but the kitsune just wanted to be alone.

"Stop touching me!" He shouted, throwing her arm away. He growled upsetly at her, before stopping suddenly, realizing what he was doing. He walked stiffly away and stopped in the middle of the garage, continuing to sniffle. He sank to his knees, whimpering quite loudly, attracting the attention of the cat. He was so upset, he wanted to be alone... But there was nowhere to go, not here in the city. That was the only thing he hated about it. It was too public. What if he ever got upset and wanted a just a LITTLE privacy, like right now? And he couldn't leave work on his first day, he would probably be fired or something, but that wasn't what he was concerned about. Not even close.

"Miles, calm down... Don't be sad..." Alexa, who was now standing directly behind him, beckoned softly, placing both hands on his shoulders and squeezing them softly. This helped his mood a little, and he stopped whimpering, going completely quiet other than his stressed breathing. "It's okay..." He put his hands down and tried to calm himself, continuing to take shaky breaths. It took a little while, maybe five minutes, before he was calmed down enough to speak rationally. He got up, rubbing his eyes, breathing normally.

"Now will you tell me?" She asked curiously, only wanting to help. But she couldn't, no one could. The vulpine ignored her.

"...So, what exactly do you do here?" He asked, changing the subject. The feline frowned, still wanting to get an answer from the fox, but sighed, deciding to drop it and play along.

"Well, we repair vehicles... Like that red convertible over there." She pointed at the shiny red automobile, and the kitsune's eyes followed her gesture. "It has a broken engine, and we're trying to fix it. But that's not _your _project, yours is black Dodge with a compromised suspension system." Tails, now finding something he was interested in, gave a small smile and nodded slightly. "C'mon, I want you to meet the others!" She chimed, a happy smile on her face. She started walking to a closed door, before opening it, and the whitish kit followed her through it, coming across another, slightly smaller garage. But there were two others in this one. There was a female lion with yellow fur sitting in the back of a green truck, playing with a wrench, and a male black panther tuning a radio, standing near the shelf that it was on. The lion was wearing a simple purple tanktop and blue jeans, and the panther, who actually looked _much _different from Alexa, was wearing a beige t-shirt and shorts. Upon hearing the two come in, they looked at them, friendly smiles on their faces. While Alexa had her entire figure inside the room, the eight-tailed fox only had part of his inside, hiding his backside, and his tails, behind the doorframe. Alexa walked to the side, and turned to face inbetween the three.

"Hey guys, we have a new employee. This is Miles!" She said, directing a hand torward the white kitsune donned in black clothing standing behind the doorway. The two mammals inside the garage exchanged a short "Hey Miles!" and waved, making the fox smile slightly. "Ehm, Miles, you can come in now..." Alexa beckoned, causing Tails's smile to vanish, and he shook his head, not wanting to let the others know how many appendages he had protruding from his backside.

"I'd... Rather not..." He said quietly, retreating behind the doorway even moreso. The panther chuckled, crossing his arms.

"Aww, he's shy... Don't worry, we won't bite." He said in a moderately deep voice, gesturing two fingers in an effort to convince the vulpine to enter, but he shook his head again. Alexa sighed, before walking over to the fox and grabbing one of his arms and tugging it hard, causing him to stumble into the doorway, exposing his eight tails. He looked at the lion and the panther again, to see that they were staring at him in shock. He blushed madly and gritted his teeth, completely embarrassed. His namesakes fell limp behind him, but he didn't move.

"Ellis, Jessica..." Alexa said quietly, running her finger across her throat, the signal to nix what they were doing. They complied and looked away from the whitish kitsune, their eyes resting on their boss once again. They were obviously staring in awe, never having seen a fox with so many tails before. "This is just Miles. You have no right to stare." She said sternly, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow. "He's an excellent mechanic, and deserves a warm welcome. I expect you to deliver just that. If you treat him the slightest bit differently than anyone else, you're _fired._" The two employees nodded sharply in understanding. The fox was a bit surprised that his boss was standing up for him so much, even though he was... _different... _He took a deep breath and stood up straight, preparing to adress his new co-workers.

"..Hi... I-I'm Miles..." He stuttered, extending a shaky hand. The lion shook his hand prominently, but the panther was reluctant to touch him. Alexa glared at him. "Ellis..." The panther gave a quick handshake and quickly retracted his hand, almost taking a step backward, but was stopped by a brief growl from his boss. "Are you going to stare at him all day or are you going to show him around?" Ellis, the black panther, nodded again.

"A-Alright, uh... J-just come with m-me..." Ellis stuttered, obviously afraid of the eight-tailed fox. He gestured towards the neon green truck. "W-Well, this is w-what we're currently workin' on... Broken e-engine..." He looked back at the fox, or more specifically, at his backside, causing the vulpine to blush again. Alexa cleared her throat loudly, and the panther looked back at the kitsune's face, not wanting to be fired.

"That's interesting.... Mind if I help?" Tails asked, smiling lightly. "Well..." He trailed off, but was met with a growl from Alexa. "Ehrm, yes, yes ya' can!" He said in agreement, smiling nervously. They walked over to the front of the truck, and the black-furred panther lifted the hood, exposing an engine that was dented all over and was probably non-functional. His tails were fluttering happily again, reflecting his emotions, brushing against things around him. One of these was Ellis, who yelped when one of them brushed the underside of his arm, almost causing him to drop the hood.

"What happened?" Tails asked, but the panther didn't say anything, taking a wrench from the shelf and hooking it on a loose bolt on the engine. The kitsune bent over to get a closer look, causing Ellis to tremble as the fox was mere inches from touching his waist. Tails looked up at the panther, seeing his nervous expression. "Why are you acting like you're scared?" The black panther looked down at the eight-tailed kit below him, and walked torward the shelf at the side of the room, releasing the breath he'd been holding. He yelped again as the fox's fluttering tails brushed his own one.

"Do you have a problem with our new employee?" Alexa questioned sternly, directed straight at the black wildcat. He turned around and shook his head, obviously trying to hide something. "Why don't you go put your hand on his shoulder for a bit?" The panther gulped, but seeing as he had no choice, walked up to the bent-over kitsune and slowly moved his hand torward his shoulder. He eventually clasped the ligament, trembling violently as he did so, much to the vulpine's confusion.

"What's wrong?" He asked, feeling the big cat's shaking palm on his shoulder. The whitish kitsune's shirt was actually far too small for him, and was tight around his upper body, outlining his muscle structure and making him look like an official grease monkey. The fact that both his shirt and jeans were black made him look rather monochromatic other than his sapphire blue eyes, which were gazing over his shoulder at the panther. He quickly let go of his shoulder, and briskly walked back to his boss, talking quietly to her.

"Look, Alexa, I-I can't do this..." He said, throwing his arms down until they layed horizontal with his palms upturned.

"Can't do what? Be around Miles?" She said quietly but sternly, her arms still crossed.

"No, I... I just.... I mean, I know he means well, but I-I just need some time to adju-"

"Is there really something so wrong with him that you can't stand being around him?" She interrupted, but the panther shook his head.

"W-Wait, I didn't mean... I-I just can't handle this, he has too many-"

"I'm going to fire you if you finish that sentence."

"But-"

"Get used to him being here, because he's not going to leave." The panther continued to stutter, unable to find the correct words to say, before settling down with a sigh.

"Can I at least ask him a few questions?" He asked, worried.

"Be careful." She replied, and he walked cautiously to the kitsune, who was replacing one of the damaged iron pipes in the engine with a new, stainless steel one. He tapped the fox on the shoulder, and he stood up and turned to face the panther.

"Uh... Miles.... You're nice, right? You're not going to hu-" Alexa cleared her throat again, reminding the panther that he was to be careful with his words. "Uh, I mean, you wouldn't even think of actin' hostile to me or Jessica, right?" Tails raised an eyebrow, not seeing where Ellis was headed with this.

"Of course not. I'm probably the nicest _odd _person you'll see around here." He said, putting much emphasis on "odd" and looking dissatisfied.

"Odd? Why would I think ya' were _odd?" _Alexa smiled and whispered "Good job." at Ellis's choice of words. He extended an open hand to the fox who was taller than he was. "I'm sorry for bein' afraid... Let's start over, m'kay? My name's Ellis." He asked, a southern accent lining his voice. The fox smiled and grasped his hand, happy to see that he was accepted, if even a little, among strangers.

"Your fur is really soft... What Conditioner do ya' use?" Ellis asked again, remember how soft his namesakes felt when they brushed against his waist. The fox chuckled; Head n' Shoulders was Shampoo _plus _Conditioner, and he never really took notice if his fur was soft or not, as he had no way of telling, as touching soft fur with equally soft fur yielded no comparative softness.

"Oh, it doesn't matter. So what exactly is wrong with the engine?" He inquired, looking torward the open car hood again. Ellis sighed.

"Everythin'. I keep askin' Alexa to just declare it totaled, but she keeps goin' on about how it 'Still has SOME good in it!'." The panther drolled, imitating his boss by putting on a fake grin and waving his hands at the emphasized words. Tails chuckled and layed a hand on the panther's shoulder, causing him to freeze up. The vulpine raised an eyebrow at the panther's actions, before the black wildcat daintily pushed his hand off.

Tails's smile faded into a self-conscious expression. "Ellis... If you feel uncomfortable with me touching you... Is it because I have...?" The Panther shook his head.

"No, Miles, it's okay, really, I don't have a problem with it." He said reassuringly, but this didn't help the new employee's mood.

"But you just _froze _when I put my hand on your shoul-" The panther shushed him.

"Look, I didn't wanna say this, but I'm still gettin' used to...to..."

"...To me?" The fox muttered, his ears drooping. He hung his head, a clear indication that he was too sensitive for this. Alexa started a small growl behind the panther, and he sweatdropped, fear of getting fired filling his mind.

"No, no... That's not what I meant..."

"...I'm pretty sure it is..." Tails muttered, turning tail(s) and taking a few steps away, his namesakes dragging on the cement floor. "I know what you're thinking..." The panther ran in front of him, looking up at his face.

"What're ya' talkin' about? I think you're pretty smart, you sure do look like it." The fox gave an undetectable smile. The panther gave him a compliment, something that he almost never got from strangers, and it was even about his intellect. "Now are ya' gonna stand there and mope about somethin' that ISN'T TRUE all day, are are ya' gonna help me with this totaled engine?" His smile grew at the panther's statement, essentially saying that he was _not _a freak. He perked up slightly, his pointed ears raising themselves, and walked to the neon green truck once more, purposely directing his tails so they brushed against the panther's waist again. Ellis held his breath as he passed, before letting it out in a loud exhale, still slightly nervous of a fox with eight tails. He joined the fox in opening the hood, revealing the busted-up engine once again. The black panther looked back at his boss, who was smiling satisfactorily, happy that he had made up with the fox.

"Yeah, I think this thing is pretty totaled..." Tails said, analyzing the engine. His rear appendages fluttered happily as he was returning to his biggest interest, and Ellis was starting to turn blue.

"Breathe, Ellis..." Alexa said quietly, and the panther exhaled, breathing shakily since he was so close to the kitsune, but this caught his attention, his sensitive ears easily hearing him.

"I thought you were okay with me being here... Why are you doing that?" Ellis took a deep breath, preparing to say exactly what was on his mind.

"Well... I have a _really _bad memory of... of a fox... A fox with..." The panther said, obviously lying through his teeth. He was scared of the vulpine; Tails knew it.

"You're lying to me... And you're making me feel guilty because... You're afraid of me..." The off-white fox interjected, his smile long gone. "Why are you afraid of me?... I'm not going to hurt you..."

The panther forced a laugh. "No, I'm not scared of you, hones-"

"I can see it in your eyes... You want to run away... From _me..._" The panther flinched; the fox had hit him dead-on, but he wasn't going to let that show for, one, he would get fired, and two, he would probably wreck the kitsune's self-esteem. He gulped, before reluctantly slinging an arm around the whitish kit's shoulders. He just felt so... _Hostile..._ He wanted to stop, but he needed to make a good first impression.

"If I was afraid of ya', then why would I be doin' this?"

"You're trembling..." He was right, but he was absolutely lost on what to do. His brain told him to stay away, but his heart told him to mend his bad start with his new co-worker.

"Look, Miles, I seriously don't know what ta' say...Okay I admit it, I am a li'l afraid of ya', but I'm just kinda paranoid in general. Ask Jessica, she'll vouch for me." He announced, confirming and denying the fox's suspicions at the same time. Jessica, the lion in the purple tanktop, walked to the fox.

"Yeah, he's just paranoid, but I can tell that he wants to be friends with you, regardless of if you scare him or not." The lion confirmed, and the fox breathed a sigh of relief.

"But why would he be..."

"I'm pretty sure it's because you ha-..." Alexa cut her off by shaking her head. "Uh... Nevermind. Let's just get cracking on the totaled engine!" The three mammals walked to the neon truck a third time, Ellis opening the hood as Tails and Jessica replaced several broken parts in the engine. He was willing to bet that by the time they were finished, they would have replaced so many parts that it was essentially a new engine, not a repaired one. Oh well, Ellis said it was totaled, so the fox guessed it didn't matter. They continued working on it for a few minutes, before they came to an impasse; just as the kitsune predicted, they would have to replace the center part of the engine as well. Tails lifted the new engine piece from the floor as Jessica disconnected all the parts from the main section, before the vulpine gradually set it into the slot in the middle of the structure.

Tails wiped the sweat from his brow, feeling rather successful at the first feat he had completed of his new job. Ellis congratulated him with a somewhat-reluctant pat on the back, and Jessica just nodded at him. The truck was working like a charm with the new engine, making clean, solid sounds when the panther pressed on the gas. Alexa, who had been monitoring them for some time now, had left the room to take care of other business, leaving the fox alone with the two more experienced employees. Not that he wasn't experienced in Mechanics, but these two have been working here longer, and knew the rules better than he did, so they were technically "More experienced" that in fashion. Ellis, now lacking a fear of getting fired, was keeping his distance from the vulpine, something that contradicted his earlier statements of "being okay" with him. Tails placed a hand on his furry chin.

"So what are we gonna do next?" He asked, turning to face the panther who was standing a little more than ten feet away from him, messing with the radio. "Ellis?" The panther yelped, jumping to face him, a frightened expression on his face. "What are we doing next?" He asked again, walking torwards the panther, who backed up against the concrete wall, still apparently very afraid of the kitsune. By the time the fox was one foot from him, he had both arms up against the wall, facing away. Tails, quickly becoming self-conscious, dropped his ears slightly at this display. "Ellis... You told me you were fine with me being around..." He stated quietly, a worried look on his face. The panther mumbled something incoherently. "What?"

"W-Well, ya' see... Y-you're so dif-..." The whitish kitsune's ears dropped further, halting the panther's sentence. Ellis was probably feeling extremely guilty, and that was battling his own personal fear of the fox, his brain unable to decide whether to make up with the kit or stay away from him. "Uh... Look, I-I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to-..." Ellis peeled himself off the wall, forcing aside his own protective instincts to rub his new co-worker's ears. Wow, another person who knew exactly how to please him... He made a mental note to see if there was a book on foxes at the library or something. He purred absent-mindedly, startling the panther and causing him to stop. He blushed slightly; a fox that could purr probably seemed odd to anyone who didn't know him well, and he never did that with anyone else, mainly because no one else dared to touch his ears. But Ellis did.

"Uh... Erm..." He struggled to find the right words for this situation. "Sorry, I usually only do that with my friends..." The panther chuckled lightly, and softly gripped the fox's ear with his thumb and index finger, making no noise to anyone standing near, but making a loud "plump" to the kit in question. He started scratching it again, and Tails had to put an effort into not making that odd purring sound, but it eventually broke through his resistance and easily flowed out of his throat. His eyelids drifted shut, and he pushed up a little against Ellis's hand as he purred contently. This seemed to help the panther's mood, as he devoted both hands to rubbing the fox's ears, no longer afraid of him, but slightly amused at his adorable reaction.

"Miles?" He heard a female voice ask behind him, probably Jessica, but he payed no attention, quite pleased with his own little treatment from Ellis. Said panther looked around the fox at his more experienced co-worker, smiling happily.

"Idn't he cute?" He asked, making an obvious note to Tails's purring. When someone rubbed the kitsune's ears, he always stopped what he was doing and focused on the warm sensation born from it, unable to pay attention to anything else until they stopped. This was no exception, and the vulpine was completely oblivious to his surroundings, the only thing on his mind being the panther rubbing his whitish ears. He _was _rather adorable from most anyone's perspective, acting a bit like a cat in his constant purring and pushing his head against his messuse's hand. His mental state and reasoning ability was completely lost; all he could thing about was the hands stroking his ears.

"I guess you two are finally friends now?" Jessica asked, going in one of the fox's ears and out the other, but catching quite nicely in Ellis's. The panther weighed his priorities for a moment, before nodding contently, continuing to rub the tall fox's ears for a moment. He eventually stopped doing it, and Tails's senses gradually resurfaced from the warm void, his eyes reopening slowly.

"Woah... Where was I?" He placed a hand on his head, his facial features forming a confused expression. Ellis and Jessica just laughed, before the black panther laid a hand on the fox's shoulder, now feeling completely secure around him.

"You didn't go anywhere... Not anywhere important. Heh heh..." The panther teasingly droned, causing Tails to raise an eyebrow at his strange actions. "C'mon, I'll show ya' my favorite radio station."

**7777777777777777 **

A blue hedgehog sat on his purple couch, grasping the edge and whimpering nervously. The red echidna nearby sighed, placing a hand on his forehead.

"Sonic, I told you, he's gonna be fine." The scarlet mammal said, trying to convince the hedgehog to stop making that annoying whimpering noise.

"B-But what if he gets in a fight or something??" Sonic complained, his ears pressed against his head. "A-And I won't be able to do anything!"

Knuckles fiddled the hedgehog's cell phone, which he was holding. He had been texting his little brother every few minutes, asking if he was doing okay, and the echidna had gotten so fed up with it that he took the device away from him. He was whimpering now, concerned about the fox's welfare, and clutching the couch nervously, sweat appearing on his forehead. He never showed it, but he was constantly concerned about the kitsune, always watching over him, and he felt terribly uncomfortable if it ever came about that he didn't know _exactly _where the vulpine was.

"He can handle himself, Sonic, he's seventeen, almost eighteen."

"But... I-I don't know about this Powahouse place, and I don't know if he's s-safe in there or not, a-and-" The echidna clapped his hand over the hedgehog's running mouth.

"Sonic. He's just fine." The echidna stated slowly, but this didn't seem to calm the trembling hedgehog. Sonic moved the red mammal's hand off his muzzle.

"M-maybe I should text him just one m-more ti-"

"No way Sonic, you're not getting your phone back until I can tell you're not going to bother him." He looked shocked.

"_Bother _him!? Knuckles, **I'M** his legal guardian, and **I'M **responsible for him, and I can't just let him go out there on his o-"

"He's almost eighteen..." Knuckles interrupted a third time, reminding the spiky mammal of his earlier statement. The fox was no doubt mature enough to make good decisions out there and unsupervised, but Sonic could not accept this, wanting him to not get into trouble. Suddenly, the cellphone in the echidna's red-furred fingers blinged, signaling that the hedgehog had a text message. He sighed and gave the phone back to Sonic, who quickly grabbed it and flipped it open to read the message inside.

_Hey Sonic, the employees at my job are really nice! I'm not getting out of work for another 3 hours though, even though I finished all my assignments for the day. Maybe Alexa will let me go early. See ya' soon!_

Sonic calmed down slightly as he chuckled at the fox's message, his trembling lessening and his ears raising slightly. He looked at the clock on the cellphone; it said 12:03 PM. It was about lunchtime, but Knuckles wasn't cooking anything, wanting to go out to eat. Sonic had asked to go to Auf Dem Weg Wurst, On the Road Sausage, but Knuckles had humbly disagreed and asked to go to an Italian place. The blue hedgehog's arrogance had subsided almost completely as he grew older, and was now willing to consider others's suggestions rather than just his own, even though his love for chili dogs seemed to surpass all else.

Knuckles let the hedgehog keep his cellphone, but convinced him to get his spiky butt off the couch and go groom himself before they headed out. He walked into the bathroom, inspecting his fur, which was ruffled from sleep. His quills, much longer and more downward-pointing than when he was 15, were his largest difference from his childhood, although he had a more mature figure as well. He cupped his hands to capture some water from the sink, before rubbing it on his arms, chest, and legs, trying to smooth out the shiny cobalt fur. It took him a while, but afterwards he was neat and groomed, and easily presentable in public. He felt a pang of jealousy; Tails never had to do this... But that was because he always wore a shirt and jeans before going out in public, at least most of the time. The other times, however, his fur was just long and soft, and practically groomed itself as he walked about after waking up. But Sonic's fur was still rather short, and he needed to manually smooth it so he didn't look so careless in public. He walked out of the bathroom, now neat and groomed, presenting himself to his red friend, who was leaning against the door, anxious to leave the house.

The guest room, which had it's door open, showed a soundly sleeping lavender hedgehog, who was, eh, STILL asleep. Man teenagers slept a lot... Except for Tails. He didn't know why, but the vulpine usually slept less than most people his age, although he still slept quite a lot. He nudged Knuckles.

"Wanna wake up Jordan and take him with us?" He asked, but the echidna shook his head.

"Nah, it's not like we're going to go eat Chili dogs or anythi-"

_"CHILI DOGS!?" _Jordan shouted, quickly sitting up in his bed, eyes still closed. He soon fell back into the mattress, falling back asleep again. Ironically, Sonic found this hilarious, and was relentlessly giggling, supporting himself against the wall with one arm. Knuckles rolled his eyes playfully and grabbed his blue friend's arm, pulling him out the open door.

"_I'd like to make myself believe... That Planet Earth, turns, slooooowlyyyyy..."_

A whitish fox with eight tails was sitting on a neon green truck with a black panther, both of which were bobbing their heads to the slightly autotuned voice. "This is my favorite radio station, Kiss FM. I love this song, too... I never figured out what it was called..." Ellis said passively, reaching for the fox's shoulder, but instead grabbing one of his fluttering appendages. Tails shot a startled look at the panther, who quickly removed his hand, grinning nervously. "Uh, sorry..."

"...It's okay." He replied, laying a hand on the panther's solid black cat tail, mocking his mistake and making him smile. The radio was actually very high-tech, having a ground-shaking bass speaker and everything, instead of one of those shoddy alarm clock radios that only played treble. The two mammals were actually sitting on the top of the truck, the fox's tails making thudding sounds as they softly batted the roof of the automobile.

"...So I'm guessing they're _not _fake?" Ellis inquired, causing the fox to blush slightly. This wasn't the first time someone had though of this namesakes as fake. In fact, they were all too real.

"Do you have a problem with that?" He asked, and the panther shook his head. Jessica, the yellow-furred lion, took a seat to the right of the fox, actually sitting on one of his tails, causing him to yell out in pain and tug it away. She uttered a quick "Sorry" before pushing away the rest of them and finally sitting down, enjoying the music. Tails was holding and rubbing the tail that she sat on, wincing in pain as his hands glided over the strained area.

"I'm sorry, Miles..." She said, leaning forward to get a better look of the bruise she probably caused, when an odd, musky scent filled her nose. It didn't smell _bad_, it just smelled... Kind of musky. "Well, uhm, you certainly _smell _like a fox..." She said, backing up a little. The kitsune sighed.

"I know..." He muttered, fully aware of his "fox smell". He had been sweating quite a bit as he worked on the engine, and he was starting to regain his "natural" scent. "I can't get rid of that smell... I've tried everything; soaps, shampoos, shower gels, but nothing seems to work." The lion nodded in understanding. No matter what the fox did, that smell always came back if he started to sweat, and was too musky to be masked with simple deodorants, so there was really nothing he could do. Sonic had once told him that his natural scent was supposed to attract female foxes, which made him blush with embarrassment, but he wasn't exactly _normal_, so he never had any intricate relationships with anyone. They all thought he was a freak. _All _of them. Tails laid back on his namesakes, curving them upward slightly to form something like a recliner.

Ellis's stomach growled loudly, causing the whitish vulpine to sit up to investigate the source of the noise. The panther smiled nervously, chuckling. "Uh... Anyone up for lunch?"

Fifteen minutes later, the three had exited the repair house and were walking aimlessly down the sidewalk, not sure where exactly they should go. The fox's namesakes were fluttering happily behind him as he smiled broadly, taking soft footsteps with his now garbed feet. Jessica and Ellis were walking at his sides, looking back and forth at the various restaurants lining the downtown area of Station Square, deciding where to go to eat. Tails joined their search, his eyes resting on various signs. Let's see, Panda Express, Schlotzsky's, Jason's Deli... He guessed he was in the mood for a nice Italian sandwich at Jason's.

"Ya' wanna go to Jason's Deli?" Ellis asked, reading the kitsune's mind. He nodded vigorously, smiling so widely his fangs showed, a little too overconfident in eating there. The panther turned to the right and walked across the street, followed by the fox and the lion, before pushing open the glass door and causing a little bell to jingle as they entered. His nose twitched; this place REEKED of meat. And as he was a canine, a natural carnivore, it triggered a few primal instincts in him. It was shaped sort-of like a cafe, sort of, with dim lighting and white tables and big glass windows. The only thing that made it look like a restaurant was the big counter with a cash register on it, manned by an orange tabby cat with an indistinguishable gender. The fox stayed behind the other two as they trotted up to the counter, shying away as usual.

"Yeah, I'll have a large salad, he'll have a steakwich with extra mayo, and..." Jessica ordered, before stopping short and looking behind her at the kitsune. "What do you want, Miles?" He hunched his shoulders, not wanting to converse with some random person that might stare, but took a deep breath anyway.

"I'll have the Italian Cruz?" He muttered, trying to get a hold of himself. Just as he predicted, the tabby was staring at him, or rather, behind him with a shocked expression on his/her face. The cashier gradually stopped staring and punched a few buttons on the register, and their meals appeared on a little screen. They proceeded to the salad bar and drink area, all three of them grabbing a cup and choosing their selective drinks; Tails chose green tea, Jessica just took water, and Ellis filled his cup with fizzy root beer. The two males sat down at a booth as they waited for Jessica to get her salad, and she was taking her sweet time doing so.

The panther looked the fox in the eyes. "So, what do ya' do at home?" He asked, his voice coated with curiosity. The kitsune contemplated the question. Should he really tell him about his personal life? I mean, it's not like he would stalk him or anything...

"Well, I live in a big house with a blue hedgehog..." Ellis looked intrigued.

"A blue hedgehog? But hedgehogs can't be blue, that's not a natural fur color..." He said, scratching his chin.

"Sure it's not natural, do you have a problem with that? A problem with me? Am _**I **_unnatural?" The kitsune had caught him between the proverbial rock and hard place. He looked to his left and to his right; he probably didn't know how to answer the question. The vulpine moved his head closer, eyebrows furrowed. "Well?" Jessica suddenly sat down next to Ellis, saving him by the bell as she set down her giant plate of salads inbetween the two males, forcing their heads apart. She looked back and forth between the annoyed kit and the self-concious panther, confused as to the situation they were in. She absent mindedly stabbed her fork into the small mountain of greens on her plate, before biting it with a loud crunch. Tails huffed and crossed his arms, dropping the subject as far as they knew. He understood the situation Ellis was in. In his eyes, the fox _was _unnatural, but he didn't want to say so for fear of being extremely rude.

"What's going on between you two?" She asked after swallowing, but neither said a word immediately. The 17-year old kit growled slightly, his eyes narrowing.

"Ellis here was just going to tell me what he _really _thinks of me." He said harshly, causing the panther to become nervous, trembling somewhat. Ellis inhaled shakily, planning his words.

"Miles, I-I think you're-... Well what I mean is, you're not-... Y-you're...Perfectly...Natural?..." The fox showed hints of a smile; that was exactly what he had wanted to hear, but he was still doubtful of the wilcat's actual beliefs. His eight appendages, which were previously raised behind him, gradually lowered as his nerves calmed. He suddenly felt hot breath on the nape of his neck, and turned his head, still looking slightly annoyed, to see a young grey-and-black ferret that couldn't be more than 13 years old in the booth behind him, completely turned around and observing him. He raised an eyebrow at the musteline, but he simply backed away a little, a cautious look on his face. Great. Another person who was afraid of him. He sighed and turned his head back to his co-workers, seeing that Jessica was digging into her salad, cramming dressing-coated leaf after leaf into her muzzle, and Ellis was looking behind the vulpine at the young ferret that, unbeknownst to him, was currently reaching for one of his tails. He grabbed the appendage that was third from the right, yanking hard and causing the fox to yell in pain, throwing his head upward. The loud sound startled the greyish ferret, causing him to flinch and drop the tail, scrabbling back into his seat in the booth to avoid being noticed. Luckily there weren't many people in the restraunt, maybe just enough to fill three booths, and most of them were busy chattering about random subjects, so it was unlikely that many of them noticed Tails's yell under the loud buzz of their conversation. The whitish fox, however, _did _notice, and quickly whipped around, bringing his palms onto the wood between them to shoot an angry glare at the ferret, who hadn't quite found his seat and was looking behind him, meeting the kitsune's furious sapphire eyes. He was extremely scared; Tails could tell. He was trembling intensely, and whimpering quite loudly to match, his small yellow eyes looking up at him, the beginnings of tears forming inside his young tear ducts.

"Miles!" He heard Jessica shout sternly behind him. "What are you doing?! He's much younger than you!" He gave a final growl at the musteline, before turning back around to sit at his own booth, looking at the lion with an annoyed expression. She crossed her arms in disapproval. "You should know not to pick o-"

Tails slammed his palms on the table, but didn't raise his voice. "_Me, _picking on _him!? _He yanked my tail! That hurt!" Ellis looked just as disapproving as the lioness did, although he looked slightly more cautious around the fox.

"Miles, Jessica is right, ya' need to keep a cool head!" He said, rubbing the back of the angry vulpine's head vigorously. This was an odd way to calm someone, but it seemed to work, as the extreme pressure on the back of Tails's skull seemed to help reorganize his angry, violated thoughts. The fox eased back into his seat, taking a deep breath.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I let my anger get out of control, and I'm sorry for it." He admitted, making hand gestures to help accentuate his point.

"Don't tell that to us, tell that to _him._" Ellis pointed out, pointing a finger at the young ferret at the kitsune's side, trying to get his attention. Tails looked at the ferret with an apologetic look on his face, only to be surprised that the grey-and-black mammal was looking at him the same way.

"M-Mister, I-I'm sorry for p-pulling on your tail..." He apologized, beating the fox to the punch. Tails took a deep breath.

"And I'm sorry for being so scary to you..." He apologized himself, placing a white-furred hand on top of the ferret's head. He used simple terms so the kid would understand him, knowing how younger teenagers are. They both smiled, happy at the other's apology, before the 13-year old ferret walked back to his booth and hopped up next to a much larger male ferret, probably his father. A few minutes later, a reddish wolf carrying a large plate with one hand in the store's uniformed walked into their isle.

"Order number seventeeeeeeen?" He called in a very light voice, drawling out the "een" and looking back and forth. "Seventeeeeeeen?"

"That's us!" Jessica answered, raising her hand briefly. The wolf looked doubtful.

"Hmm... Seventeeeeen?" He looked at the three mammals, before laying eyes on the eight appendages lying to Tails's right and off the edge of the booth. "Yup, seventeen." The whitish vulpine blushed slightly, retracting his tails, as the red wolf set the plate down, holding a juicy-looking steakwich and an italian sandwich full of bologna, ham, relish, and lettuce. Ellis spouted an eager "Thank you!" before picking up his toasted steakwich and taking a loud bite out of it, enjoying the taste. Jessica continued to munch on her salad, and Tails picked up his Cruz and took a bite out of it himself. The meaty Italian flavor exploded in his mouth, and he choked on it, almost forgetting to chew before swallowing. Damn instincts. Damn them to hell. Apparently his ancestors didn't exactly chew their food before swallowing, but centuries of evolution had rendered the vulpine unable to do as such, even though his instincts told him to.

"Remember to _chew_, Miles! Hah hah hah!" Ellis taunted, laughing out loud, mocking the fox's instincts, before taking another bite out of the oddly-named steakwich. The fox stuck his tongue out at him. He continued to feast on his Italian sandwich, trying oh-so-hard to take quiet, dainty bites. It was truly difficult; his instincts kept telling him to scarf it down with no consent for politeness, but his brain told him not to. And then his body screamed "Which is it!?" in frustration the only way it can; making him edgy and trembley. Combine this with his teenage horomones, and he was quite an unstable little kitsune. He suddenly saw a familiar shade of shiny cobalt in his peripheral vision, and moved his eyes torward it, seeing a familiar cobalt hedgehog walking slowly and chatting with a hotheaded red echidna, too distracted with eachother to notice the teenage vulpine who's booth was a mere two rows from the giant glass window. The kit put on a friendly smile and waved at them, but Knuckles was the only one to notice. He smiled back, quickly nudging the chattering hedgehog to turn torwards the window. He complied and turned as directed, and peered inside the restaurant, immediately noticing Tails. His face lit up intensely, and he jumped up a foot or two in the air, before pushing the door open and rushing to his little bro'.

"Tails! I didn't expect to see you here!" He greeted, before his smile disappeared at the realization that he had used his brother's nickname in public. _Again._ The fox nervously looked at his two co-workers, who had their eyebrows raised.

"'Tails'?" Ellis blurted out in confusion. He immediately looked protective. "Who are you, and why did ya' just insult Miles like that?" Sonic looked at the panther in disbelief.

"Insult him? No, no, no, I-I didn't mean-... I mean that's what I usually ca-... Uh, I-I'm his brother, Sonic." The hedgehog stuttered nervously, extending a hand to shake. Ellis just glared at him. He sweatdropped, knowing he had just made a BAD first impression by using the kitsune's nickname in front of two people that were probably his friends. Jessica however, shook his hand a little bit reluctantly, before pulling her hand away as if it was being burnt.

"Ellis, don't worry, it's probably something that we know nothing about." She said, placing a hand on the panther's shoulder, before looking at the hedgehog. "Although this guy is obviously not Miles's brother." She gave a light glare. "Who are you?"

The cobalt hedgehog looked extremely nervous. He held his palms in front of him, closing his eyes. "Look, I-I really am his brother. I-I found him abandoned in the woods a-a long time ago, a LONG time ago, and I-I sorta took him in and took care of him, a-and..." He looked at the fox. "Just...Nevermind. I'm sorry, Miles..." His ears drooped, and he looked sad. Tails sat up and looked at his two co-workers.

"This is my brother, Sonic. An adoptive brother, but still one nevertheless. I live with him." He stated, and the two mammals nodded in understanding. The hedgehog took a seat next to the fox, accidentally sitting his spiky rump on one of his tails. He screamed, much louder than before, grabbing his tail with his hands and pulling it away. This did _not _help Sonic's impression, making him seem even more cruel to the fox, although it was an accident. The cobalt mammal took the tail that he sat on and rubbed it softly with both hands, whispering "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." and hoping the panther would hear.

"And he treats ya' like _that?" _Ellis asked, not hearing the hedgehog, glaring and crossing his arms. The fox was still in too much pain to speak, so Sonic took the liberty instead.

"W-wait, it was an accident! See, I'm rubbing it, I didn't mean to do that!" The cobalt spikeball appealed, trying to convince the strange panther that sitting on his best friend's tail was a mistake. "R-really!" Ellis was unmoved.

"You're a terrible brother!!" The panther growled loudly, bending over and pointing an accusing finger at the shocked hedgehog's face. Tails reached over and grabbed his arm, panting heavily, in pain.

"E...Ellis...I-it's...It's... Agh... Okay..." He forced through his throat, wincing in pain as the hedgehog held his appendage. Usually just sitting on his tails didn't hurt much, but the hedgehog just _dropped _onto it, crushing it between his bottom and the wood of the seat. It... It felt like it was bleeding... He couldn't tell Ellis that though, because it would further ruin his impression of the cobalt spikeball. He looked behind him at the raised tail, and his eyes widened when he spotted a patch of fur that was painted red. Red with blood. It was bleeding! And the redness was growing, slowly but surely. He moved it out of Sonic's hands, down under the table, to make sure that his co-worker didn't see, before returning his attention to the panther, trying to regain his composure. "He...He didn't...Didn't mean to...A-argh!!..." The fox had not a _sliced _artery, but a _ripped _one, which hurt considerably more since instead of being cut clean, it was battered until it tore. He could feel the crimson liquid running down the rest of his tail fur, and the stinging grew immensely until it felt like it was on fire. The cobalt hedgehog, as kind as he actually was, continued massaging the appendage under the table, causing the kitsune to wince periodically and relax at the same time. He let out a quiet, sharp but pained sound every time the pain spiked, twitching as well, but relaxed inbetween those moments.

"Miles, are you okay? What's he doing to you?" Jessica asked, leaning over the table to get a closer look at what was happening. When her vision glided past the barrier that was the table, she saw Sonic's beige-furred hands pushing a red spot on the kit's tail, trying to stop the bleeding. The lion smiled softly, seeing the loving and caring act the hedgehog was performing. She took her seat again, and whispered something into Ellis's ear, but his facial expression did not change. The panther glared at the cobalt mammal again.

"All you're doin' is fixin' your own mistake. I bet you don't even do that all the other times he gets hurt." The panther growled, but the hedgehog shook his head.

"Y-Yes I do! He's my little brother, and I love him. If he ever gets hurt, I'M the one who helps him." Sonic stated, making a very convincing claim at it.

"Doubt it. You're just a big jerk to him, aren't yo-"

"_Shut up!!" _Sonic interrupted with a yell, letting go of his little brother's tail and slamming his palms on the table. "I'm his legal guardian! I have been ever since I was twelve!" He glared back at the panther, now quite angry himself. "What the hell do YOU know about parenting!?" Ellis was taken aback, and his glare quickly changed to a look of distress. Sonic was angry. Angry because he was accused of being selfish and unreasonable, accused of being a bad guardian, accused of hating Tails. He grit his teeth, his glare intensifying. "He was so little when I found him, abandoned at barely freakin' 4 years old! I'M the one who took him in and gave him a home! I'M the one who raised him from childhood! I'M the one who's been with him through ALL of this! _And YOU think I'm a terrible brother!?!?_" He continued to rant, his calls lost in the buzz of conversation around him, but easily heard in the immediate area that was the table. He was leaned over the table, extremely close to the panther's face, who was pressed against the back of the booth, somewhat afraid of the steaming mammal. Tails simply stared at the hedgehog, surprised by his barking. Sonic never lost his cool unless... Unless... someone insulted his relationship with the kitsune. A simple three-word phrase would set him off. Those three words are "You hate Tails.". The first time someone said that, he tackled them and screeched at their face about how it was untrue, and Knuckles had to pull him off and restrain him until he calmed down.

"You can kiss the spikiest part of my ass if you honestly think I hate him in any way, you ungrateful, insensitive little fu-" He didn't get to finish that sentence, as Tails laid his hand on the hedgehog's shoulder, causing him to stop dead in his tracks and look at his gazing sapphire blue eyes. He was still in pain from the burning sensation on his 2nd tail from the right, but took a shuddering breath anyway.

"Sonic... I-It's okay... I think he gets it..." The panther was scared significantly, breathing heavily and turning his head away from Sonic, who was growling angrily in his face just moments before. He flinched and whimpered at another spike of pain, causing his big bro' to stop what he was doing and place his hands back on the fox's bleeding appendage. The beige fur on his hands was soon soaked with the kitsune's blood, as he was bleeding rather profusely for a simple torn artery. The blood was starting to pool on the seat as it continued to flow from his severed blood vessel, eventually staining the hedgehog's rump as well.

"Man, Tails, I think we gotta get you to a hospital, you're bleeding a lot!" He said rather quietly as to not alert anyone nearby. Tails shook his head, and started to say that he was okay, before another spike of pain hit and he cried out. Sonic noticed that the bleeding was increasing instead of slowing up, and he started to tremble nervously. "O-Oh my god, c'mon Tails, w-we need to get to a hos-"

"No...I'm...I'm okay..." He was starting to feel lightheaded from the blood loss, and swayed gently back and forth. Sonic took action, and got out of the seat and stood up, tugging on the fox's arm to convince him to follow suit. He gave another yelp as another spike of pain rippled through his body, and fell over sideways into the pool of his own body fluids on the seat. He picked himself up, the right side of his face coated with the crimson liquid, which made the two felines gasp. Sonic had a mind to carry the kit, but he was far too heavy for that due to his appendages, which added 110 additional pounds to his weight. He simply pulled harder on his arm, hoping he would come with. The hedgehog realized that he wasn't going to move, so he just clutched the fox's injured tail again, trying to stop the bleeding once more. Unbeknownst to him, he was holding it far too tightly, which caused the vulpine to begin whining in pain like the fox he was, almost forcing his big brother to let go of his tail to comfort him, but he knew that stopping the bleeding was more important. Nevertheless, the blood flow eventually slowed, before coming to a complete stop. Sonic slowly removed his hands, which were soaked with his brother's blood, before breathing a huge sigh of relief that he was okay. He looked at his hands; they were completely soaked with Tails's body fluid.

He looked back at Ellis. "Now do you believe that I care about him?" The panther nodded slowly, and the hedgehog got up from the table and headed to the bathroom to wash his hands. Tails was starting to regain his senses, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

"Wh...What happened?" He asked, feeling the right side of his face with his hand. "Why is... My face fur wet?" He looked at his claw-tipped fingers, seeing that they had blood on them. _His _blood. He looked at Ellis and Jessica, who were staring at him, shocked. He remembered the pain in his tail, and looked down at it to see that there was a pool of blood that was staining his other appendages.

Ellis slowly raised a pointed finger. "Uh...Miles....Maybe you should... Go wash up?" He suggested slowly, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb at the washroom, which Sonic was currently entering. Tails got up out of the rather large booth seat and walked slowly to the bathroom, taking notice of all the people looking at him. The odd thing was, this time they were looking at his _face, _not his backside. He scanned around him, seeing many people, among them a mother who was holding her newborn child away, a reddish cat who got out of his seat and backed up in fear, and a gecko who yelped loudly when the fox brushed his side. He eventually opened the black door, which had a blue symbol for men on it, and walked in.

The first thing he saw was white tiles all around him, a paper towel dispenser and air dryer, and if he looked to his left, Sonic, washing something red off his hands. "Sonic?" The hedgehog jumped and whipped around when he heard the fox's voice, showing his hands, which were wet with something red. The vulpine, eyes wide, pointed at one of them. "Is...Is that _my _blood?"

"Tails, I-..." He looked back and forth nervously, before sighing. The kitsune walked closer, before Sonic stepped forward and stopped him from turning the corner. "U-uhm, close your eyes, I'll clean you up..." He offered. Tails looked confused.

"I'm dirty?" He forced his way past and looked at himself in the mirror, to see that the entire right side of his head was covered in blood, making him look like a murderer. He stared into the mirror, studying himself with a shocked expression.

"W-Wait, it's okay Tails, y-you were just bleeding..." He stepped in front of the fox, a worried look on his face. Tails sighed, feeling the wet blood on his cheek.

"This is going to stain my fur if I don't get it out soon..." He muttered, reaching for the faucet. Sonic just stepped aside and let the kitsune wash, the water turning as red as the blood mixed within it. The fox had sealed the drain, so the water wasn't going anywhere, and he could wash his face properly, the fresh blood coming out quite easily. After all the blood was off his face, the glorious light color restored, he sat his rump on the sink, proceeding to wash his tails. This was far more difficult, and he was having trouble bending himself around 180 degrees and then downward to rub the blood out. He looked at his brother, who was using the adjacent sink to continue washing the red fluid from his hands. "Sonic, can you help me?" He almost regretted saying that, as it made him look irresponsible. Sonic made a short "Mm-hmm!", finished up his washing, and stepped over to the vulpine, taking one of his bloodstained appendages and running water over it, rubbing the crimson stain out. Tails blushed slightly, hoping to god that no one could see what they were doing. His big brother was having to take each individual tail and rub it all over to get the blood out, something that would have embarrassed him to no end if people were watching. In fact, someone could come in at any time... He pushed those thoughts out of his mind. The cobalt hedgehog was going from left to right, and he was on the third tail, not even halfway done yet. It only took a couple minutes to wash each one, but it felt like an eternity to him, as he was constantly watching the door to make sure no one was to enter.

"Hurry up, I don't want anyone to see..." He muttered, looking nervous.

"Oh don't worry, no one's gonna come in. After all, you can't do this yourself, right?" Sonic replied, taking the fox's point. He couldn't do it himself because the sink was raised and very small, and he couldn't bend around halfway _and _bend over to wash them himself. He was actually pulling on them to straighten them out, and this didn't exactly feel good with their bases being scrunched together by the slit in the back of his jeans. Of course, the slit was necessary, as he had no other choices. If he moved them up and over the waistline, it was extremely painful, if he sagged his jeans and underwear a little, it exposed his rump, and if he made it into a large hole, it made him look reckless. So he just went with the slit.

Fourth tail now. He was basically reminding the kitsune of the past 5 years of his life, practically counting up his rear appendages as he washed them one by one. "Hurry, Sonic...!"

"Tails, I absolutely _swear _that no one is going to come-" His sentence was interrupted by the sound of the door opening, Tails gasped, but didn't move from his position as the person came in. First a red-furred hand, then red dreadlocks, and... Phew, it was just Knuckles. He breathed a major sigh of relief as the echidna walked in; he wouldn't stare like everyone else would, although he looked confused as to what was happening.

"Sonic? Tails? What are you two doing?" He asked, causing Sonic to look back at him.

"Oh, I'm just washing Tails's tails, since he can't do it himself with this stupid high-up sink." The hedgehog informed, moving on to his brother's fifth tail. He had so many, it was taking a while to wash them all...

"Why are they covered in ketchup?" The echidna asked, and Sonic snickered at his tendency of not exactly being the sharpest knife in a box of crayons. Tails turned his head to look at him.

"It's blood." Knuckles nearly choked, a horrified expression on his face. "Don't worry, it was a minor injury."

"B-but a minor injury doesn't bleed that much!" The fox sighed as the hedgehog moved on to his sixth tail.

"It healed, didn't it?" Knuckles quieted down, although he still looked worried. He noticed Sonic moving on to the tail that was injured, the seventh one. "Careful, Sonic... That's the one you-_A-AGH!!" _He cried out in pain as the cobalt mammal rubbed it in the injured location, flinching and throwing his tail out of Sonic's beige hands. He grabbed it again, washing it softly this time, but it still hurt.

"I-I'm sorry..." The hedgehog apologized, his washing becoming ever more gentle. After what seemed like fifteen minutes, he moved on to the eighth one.

"So what exactly happened?" Knuckles asked, touching the injured tail and causing the kitsune to yelp again. "S-Sorry!" The fox accepted his apology, and soon after, he got back onto his feet, all his tails washed and dripping wet. They felt heavier because of the water, but not that much heavier, as he could still lift them quite easily. The cellphone in his pocket blinged all of the sudden, and he reached into it take out out the device, flipping it open. It said he had a text from "120-330-2031". Hmm, who could that be? He opened it, viewing the message on the small screen.

_Hey, Miles? It's me, your boss! Well, there's a _

_dangerous gas leak back at the main building, _

_and I don't want you, Ellis, or Jessica back here _

_after lunch. Just go straight home, okay? Don't _

_worry about telling them, I sent them messages_

_too. :)_

_~Alexa_

A gas leak? Well, that was certainly a reason not to go back to the main building... Sonic tapped him on the shoulder.

"Tails, we should get going, I booked a home therapist for you, and he's supposed to be at the house in two hours." Tails raised a greyish eyebrow. There were therapists you could call to your house now? Secondly, why would he even _want _to have a therapist? It's not like he wouldn't understand, no one ever does. Third, Therapists asked embarrassing questions half the time, usually in the solitude of a sound-proof therapy room, but this whole home therapist thing removed that luxury, and his roomates would hear. Nevertheless, he sighed, exiting the bathroom, clean as an off-white whistle. No one stared this time, as all the blood was gone, so he effortlessly made his way to the table his co-workers were sitting at.

"Goodbye Ellis, Jessica!" He called, waving his hand. "I gotta go home now." The two felines smiled and waved back, and the kitsune turned around and starting walking to the door. He turned his head, seeing the cobalt hedgehog and the hotheaded Echidna already walking torward the door as he was. They walked out of the restaurant, and started running back home.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tails took another bite out of his yellowish apple, sitting on the purple couch in the living room, lined with golden fabric. As he was pressed against the back rather tightly, his namesakes were forced evenly to his sides; four on the left, four on the right. They were wrapped around Sonic and Knuckles, who were sitting next to him as they all watched a weird TV program called _The 700 Club._

Knuckles stared awkwardly at the screen. "Isn't this show for people 65 and over?" He asked, looking at the fox. "I don't get any of the jokes!"

"I know, right?" Sonic asked, also looking at his little bro'."Why are we watching it?"

"I don't know?" He replied, looking between the echidna and the hedgehog. Knuckles picked up the remote and punched in 0 0 3, and the display quickly changed to Discovery Channel. Sonic grabbed the edge of his seat and bent forwards, a bright smile on his face.

"Heyyyy, Mythbusters!" He chimed, instantly interested. The two humans onscreen dropped a truck onto a metallic pivot via the use of a crane, sending a mannequin flying up several stories onto the roof of a building. The kitsune chuckled; what an odd show... His thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. It played a very nostalgic tune when somebody rang it... He asked Sonic about it a while back, and he said it had something to do with collecting Chaos Emeralds a long time ago, and all this ridiculous nonsense about "Special Stages". What in God's name was a Special Stage? He decided to forget it, and got up, walking to the white-painted door. He placed his claw-tipped hand on the doorknob, before turning and opening it, revealing a white wolf in formal clothing standing on the welcome mat. Eyebrows raised, he studied the canine. He looked rather friendly, at least.

"Who are you?" He asked curiously, staring.

"I'm Walter. I'm a therapist, here for someone named..." He pulled a notepad out of his pocket and looked at it. "...Miles?" The fox invited him in, and he took up the offer happily, walking into the house with quiet casual shoes.

"Knuckles, get out the armchair please." Tails called to the echidna, who complied and walked into the other room, returning a few seconds later carrying a big leather chair. He set it down beside the couch, before rotating both to face eachother, winking at the kitsune with a smile on his muzzle. Sonic was still sitting on the couch as the scarlet mammal rotated it, and said echidna soon joined him, making room for the fox in the middle. He sat down prominently, Walter taking a seat in the leather armchair. The vulpine noticed that he looked surprised as he scribbled something on his little notepad.

"What?" The fox asked, causing the wolf take his attention away from the paper and to gaze up at him with his yellow eyes. Walter inhaled, preparing to speak.

"I....Well...I noticed you had eight tails, and-" Sonic cleared his throat loudly, glaring at the therapist. Tails looked slightly downward with deeply hurt eyes. "Uh... Nevermind, uhm... So are you Miles?" He asked, and the fox nodded, raising his head back up. The white wolf looked guilty, probably realizing he had just said something he shouldn't have. "I-I'm sorry.... Is that what's been troubling you?" The 17-year old kit looked at the blue hedgehog sitting next to him.

"Just tell him, Tai-...Erm, Miles, he's a therapist, he's trying to help." Sonic said quietly into his little brother's ear. Tails turned his head back at the therapist.

"Well, uhm, yes... But the real problem is the fact that I get really angry when someone makes fun of me..." He admitted, scratching the back of his neck. The therapist nodded.

"Miles, you're seventeen years old, correct?" He asked. What a strange question...

"Yes, that's right." The fox answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I know a few cases where teenagers are extremely edgy and angry due to them.. Well..." The white wolf trailed off, a hand on his chin. Tails gawked at him, confused.

"Due to them what?"

"Miles, do you mind if I ask you a personal--No, PRIVATE question?" The kitsune sighed; he was no doubt going to talk about his tails, but at least he saw that it _was _sort of a private matter. His ears dropped slightly.

"Ask away." He braced himself for the inevitable.

"Miles, how often do you... Masturbate?"

Tails's jaw dropped. He didn't see that coming. "What!?" He practically shouted, not believing he had just been asked that. The white wolf didn't find this surprising or hilarious in any way, like the kit thought he would, retaining a serious expression.

"Don't look so surprised, it's a perfectly normal thing for people your age. With your hormones raging, your testosterone on edge, if you don't stimulate yourself, they're going to build up and make you edgy and irritable all the-"

"Stop! Okay, just stop!" He caught his breath, massaging the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "Can't we talk about something else?" He seriously didn't want to talk about this, not in front of Sonic and Knuckles, who were gawking back and forth between their foxy friend and the therapist. In fact, he'd rather not talk about it at all. _THIS _was why he didn't want a therapist. All the therapists in Station Square asked embarrassing questions like that, always poking their muzzles into every little possibility for one's troubles, always starting with the exact ones they didn't want to talk about. It was like they had little radar dishes attached to their brains, picking up the thoughts of everyone around them.

"Are you sure? That could very well be the cause of your chronic anger." The teenage fox sighed angrily, fingers still on the bridge of his nose. He just wanted this particular arc of the conversation to end.

"Yes I'm sure, now tell me, what other things might be causing it?" The kitsune asked, taking his fingers off his furred face.

"Well, this brings me to another point," The therapist turned his head torward Sonic. "You're his legal guardian, yes?" The hedgehog nodded, still a little shocked from the wolf's embarrassing question earlier. "Tell me," He flipped to another page on his notepad. "Sonic, has Miles ever had a romantic relationship with a vixen? A girlfriend, perhaps?" The cobalt hedgehog rubbed his beige muzzle, contemplating the question. After a few seconds, he took it off.

"No, I don't think he has. Should I be concerned?" The white wolf jotted down some more things on his notepad.

"Yes, very. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, one needs to experience love and affection from a member of the opposite sex _and _his/her own species before they can realize their goals. According to you, Miles has never experienced this, and to his mental state, it is long overdue. He's seventeen years old and has never had a girlfriend." He looked at the fox. "He probably feels an empty spot in his life that he doesn't know how to fill, for everyone seems to avoid him as a unit." His yellow gaze drifted back to Sonic. "I think you should do something about this."

"You mean like, help him get a girl?"

"Precisely." Walter chuckled, fiddling with his pencil. "I think he looks rather handsome, and I'm surprised he doesn't already have one despite his-..." Tails whimpered softly, his ears folding. "Uh... Anyway, I'm positive that a simple romantic relationship will make his life _so _much easier. After all, he's very unique." He smiled at the kitsune.

"I bet she would like the way he cuddles." Sonic chimed, winking at his little brother, who blushed slightly. He was hinting to this morning, when the fox had his tails curled around the cobalt spikeball, holding him close in his soft embrace. He guessed that a female would like him doing that, as it was cute and loving, and was a way of showing affection. The white wolf scribbled some more things down on his notepad.

"What other issues do you have?" Walter asked, but the whitish vulpine was reluctant to speak.

"N-Nothing you'd ever understand..." He forced out, suddenly thinking about his future.

"Well, Tai-... I mean Miles is supposed to grow a ninth tail in a few day-" Knuckles blurted out with no consent for Tails's privacy, before being stopped short by Sonic slapping a hand over his muzzle.

"Knuckles!!" He hissed through his teeth, having to reach across the fox to stop the stupid echidna's running mouth. But it was too late, Walter had already heard.

"...Nine tails...On a fox?" He wrote down another thing on his notepad. "Aren't nine-tailed foxes supposed to have magical powers?" The eight-tailed kit began trembling nervously.

Walter took a long look at him. "Ah, I see, you're nervous..." He set down his notepad beside him on the armchair. "But unfortunately I know nothing on this subject, so you're right, I _don't _understand." Tails's expression didn't change. "Why are you nervous, though?" The whitish fox shook his head to himself, looking downward.

"I... I-I'll be even _more _of a freak..." He muttered quietly, his face distraught.

"A freak? No, no, Miles, you're nothing even remotely close to that ugly term." Walter actually looked concerned for the troubled kit. Unfortunately, this only caused the vulpine lay his head in his hands, still trembling. The hedgehog sitting next to him rubbed his ears, trying to help him out, but it had no noticeable effect on the quietly sobbing teenager. The therapist frowned, realizing he wasn't helping. His eyes darted back and forth as he searched for the right words to say, staying absolutely still otherwise.

"You just _had _to ask him that, didn't you?" Sonic said in a hostile tone to the therapist, glaring at him. The white wolf's expression changed to a guilty one, and he picked up his notepad again, flipping through it, mumbling quietly to himself. The kitsune's sobbing got slightly louder, and he clutched his head, eyes shut tight as he continued thinking about the inevitable. "Tails... Tails, it's okay... It's okay..." The cobalt hedgehog sibilated, stroking the fox's ears. Walter decided not to question the strange nickname, as he figured that asking about it would only make the situation worse, and instead just stayed quiet for a few minutes while his client recovered. In a few minutes, the fox was sitting up again, his eyes red from sadness, but calmed down enough to speak clearly.

"Dear Miles, apparently you have a very difficult life... I can empathize with that... I hope you realize that I'm only trying to help, not hinder..." Walter said in a soft tone, spreading out his weight on the thin ice of the kit's conscience. The eight-tailed vulpine looked increasingly distressed, leaning slightly on his spiky brother.

"Y-you think I'm a f-freak too, don't y-you?" He stuttered, tears welling up in his eyes. The wolf shook his head, eyebrows tilted upwards.

"No, I don't... I don't, Miles..." He said, trying to appeal to his mentally fragile client. The fox gritted his teeth, unaffected by the canine's words.

"D-don't lie to me! Y-you're just like e-everyone else!!" The kitsune shouted, standing up and glaring at the therapist, teeth grit. "Y-you're just FAKING all of this!!" He started to growl.

"Tails, no he's not! He really is trying to help!" Sonic said, attempting to pull his little brother back onto the couch. "Calm down!"

"Miles, don't get angry, I-I'm not trying to-" The fox snarled loudly at him, causing him to back up into his chair. He lunged at him, claws and fangs bared, but was restrained by Knuckles before he could do any damage. Walter was pressed against the back of the leather armchair, breathing heavily in fear as he kept eyes on the growling kitsune, held back only by the scarlet echidna's arms.

"Tails, stop!" The cobalt hedgehog yelled, his ears folded as he looked in anguish at the angry canine, a hand on his furred shoulder. He looked back with sapphire blue eyes that contained an abnormal fire of rage, eyes that were never meant to be this angry... It just didn't look right to see those normally happy eyes filled with so much enmity... It felt... Wrong... The kitsune only growled louder, and the hedgehog swore he could see a tint of red in those beryl eyes, reflecting the feral rage present in the fox's mind. He also thought he could see those delicately round pupils extending into vertical slits... This wasn't good. Tails was getting _too _angry.

"Argh, calm down, Tails!" Knuckles forced out, his voice slightly muffled by the fox's back. He was holding the vulpine in front of him, preventing him from moving forward to attack the snow white wolf, holding his waist back. Sonic's eyes were starting to secrete crystal tears as he violently shook his brother to bring him back to his senses, but it wasn't seeming to work. Tails was violently lashing at the wolf in the chair, swinging his claws in front of him and trying to rip him up, and the echidna was forced to restrain the fox's arms as well, holding them to his body. The kitsune struggled, snarling and growling, his irises a light shade of purple as he focused on the other canine. Sonic got up and ran in front of the snarling fox, tears now flowing freely from his upset eyes, and grabbed his shoulders tightly.

"Please, stop!!" The cerulean hedgehog shouted, now having his brother's attention. Suddenly, Tails pulled his right arm free of the echidna's restraint and raised it, before bringing his claws down onto the spiky mammal's face, tearing deep gashes in his cheek and forcing him to the ground. He cried in pain and clutched his beige cheek with both hands, crimson blood flowing from the wound and staining his fur. The tears only made it worse, causing it to sting and bringing him excruciating pain as he tried to pick himself up, one hand on his cheek. Knuckles had resecured the fox's arm by his side, so he was able to get back up easily. "Agh!... W-why did you do that, Tails!?" He removed his blood-covered palm and pointed at the five gashes on his cheek. "Look what you did to me!!" Without his hand covering them, the gashes continued to spill blood onto his face, gradually painting his entire cheek a crimson color, mixing with the tears pouring from his emerald green eyes. Tails seemed to have heard him this time, and stopped his session of rage to gawk at the wounds that _he _created. The anger vanished from his eyes, and so did the red tint, replaced with guilt, sadness, and regret. When he stopped struggling, Knuckles released his hold on him, and he looked at his hands, seeing the blood on them. Sonic's blood. Tears started to spill from his eyes as he looked up at his brother, who clutched the wounds on his face tightly, crying in pain. He clutched his head, confused as to what to do, and dashed to his right and around the corner, heading into his and Sonic's room. He shut the door and locked it, visual contact with Sonic and Knuckles severed.

_To be continued..._

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

**Me: Ah yes, a nice, long chapter for you all. :) On a side note, the content in the next chapter was SUPPOSED to be in this one, but since there was a scene break, I figured I might as well cut everything and paste it into the next chapter to get a head start. xD I have a huge Widescreen monitor, and on it, this chapter is a good 15 pages. THIS is why I took so long, this giant chapter. Don't expect this to ever happen again, kay? :P And if it does, just check the progress meter ON MY PROFILE to see how I'm doing.**

**Sonic: ...W...Why? Why did you make Tails do that?...**

**Me: It's for the plot. :D**

**Sonic: (Sad face)**

**Me: You see that button down there? The big, grey button with green text? Click it. NAOW. Uh, there's candy if you do! :3 Go on, click it! And then tell all your friends about it, kay?**


	5. Fog

**Me: Another chapter, woot!**

**Sonic: Don't expect this one to be NEARLY as long as the last one.**

**Me: I'll still try and make it long enough to satisfy the readers, though. :)**

**(Knuckles walks in)**

**Knuckles: Hey, Sonic! What'cha been up to?**

**Sonic: Knuckles! I'm so glad to see you!**

**Knuckles: Hey, did you see that really violent scene with (Shup) blah blah BLAH blah blah?**

**Sonic: Blah blah! Blah blah, blah BLAH, blah BLAH blah blah...**

**Knuckles: Blah blah bla-**

**Me: (Takes the earmuffs off the camera that had mysteriously gotten there)**

**Sonic: But seriously, the readers are in for a big, nasty-**

**Me: Shush Maurice. :D Note that I am STILL taking suggestions. If you want to see something in the story, saaaay, a new power for Tails, PM me! I wonder if I should make him walk on water... Meh, enjoy the chapter, folks!**

**...(Is chased by a fuming hedgehog)**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**White**

**Chapter V**

**By Sparkz**

Knuckles picked up some antiseptic from the first aid kit he had fetched from the kitchen, preparing to rub it into the wounds on Sonic's face. Said hedgehog was struggling under the echidna's grip on the carpet, not wanting the cleansing substance to come in contact with the gashes. "Urgh, stay still, Sonic!" He said, having trouble with his rubbing.

"No! It'll sting! Can't we do something else??" Sonic griped, swiveling his head back and forth to delay the cleansing substance's stinging sensation. Knuckles had helped him apply pressure to the gashes until they stopped bleeding, and then washed them, but they were still prone to infection, and needed to be disinfected before applying the medical gauze. Knuckles eventually swiped his fingers across the hedgehog's face, the antiseptic leaking into the wounds on his cheek, causing the stinging to begin. "A-AAGH!!" He cried as Knuckles put more of the germicidal fluid onto his face. He grabbed at it with his own hands, trying to wipe it off, but it had already seeped inside the wounds, and could not be removed. After a few minutes, which seemed like hours, the stinging faded to a dull ache, and he could withstand it... Barely. The scarlet echidna took an extremely wide 6-inch by 6-inch piece of medical gauze from the medkit, before placing it on the facial wounds, securing it with medical tape. The cobalt hedgehog rubbed the gauze softly, the wounds still attracting most of his attention.

He still couldn't believe it was Tails who had done the damage to him. Shy, sweet little Tails... He would _never _do something like that! Why did he, then? To _him? _His best friend? He remembered that the kitsune was still inside their room, probably crying his eyes out at what he did, and he walked away from Knuckles, taking a look at Walter, who appeared to be sleeping. He actually fainted while the vulpine was lashing at him, and would probably think that the entire thing was a dream when he woke up. Nevertheless, he continued walking to the closed door to their room, and took a deep breath. He knocked on it softly.

"...Tails? Are you in there?" He asked softly but loud enough to hear behind the door, hoping he would get an answer.

"...G-go away..." The fox answered in a trembling voice, slightly muffled. He probably had his muzzle buried in one of the pillows or something. Sonic sighed, the vulpine probably felt more like an unstable freak now than he ever did.

"Listen Tails, i-it's okay, I forgive you... That wasn't you... I _know _it wasn't..." He called to the other side of the door. "Please, open the door and let me in..."

"...W-why should I?... N-now _you _think I'm a f-freak too..." The vulpine said, his voice trembling. Sonic frowned, he was probably feeling so guilty right now...

"Not true!" He shouted, dragging his fingertips down the door and making a scratching sound. "I would _never _think that about you! NEVER!!" Unlike Tails, he didn't exactly have claws, for some reason. His own extensions never grew any longer than fingernails, and he couldn't do such damage with them as the vulpine could. He rubbed the wounds under the gauze again, wishing they would stop stinging.

"...Y-you're lying..." The kitsune accused, making audible sobbing sounds from behind the door. The cobalt hedgehog sighed, and felt his gloveless fingers up above the doorframe, before taking hold of a small tool and pulling it down. He inserted the tool into the hole in the lock, and twisted it sharply clockwise, the device making a sharp clicking noise as it unlatched. "-N-no! D-don't come in!" Tails shouted, his voice no longer muffled, as he had probably raised his head from the pillow at the noise. Sonic ignored him and turned the doorknob, pushing the door open slowly as to not startle the canine.

"It's okay, Tails... There's nothing to be ashamed of... It'll heal up in a couple weeks, don't worry about it..." He sibilated as the fox came into his view, his tearstained whitish muzzle facing directly toward him as he lay on the bed, trembling and whimpering in sadness. The blue hedgehog's expression changed to one of worry, and he stepped closer, a hand outstretched. The off-white kit got up out of the bed and backed away in response, his broken mindset unable to handle the view of his brother's bandaged cheek. The blood on his right hand was still there, as he had yet to wash it, too absorbed in his sobbing.

"...S-stay away!..." He shouted, whimpering, backed up against the wall. Sonic continued walking closer, until he was close enough to lay a hand on the fox's cheek. The kitsune whimpered louder at the contact, turning his head away, but Sonic simply leaned closer, putting his muzzle to the fox's ear.

"...It's okay, Tails... It's okay... Shhhhhhh..." He whispered, stroking the side of the canine's face, his gloveless fingers running through the fur on his little brother's muzzle. Calm words always help calm the mind, they say. Tails's frantic, exasperated breathing gradually slowed down over time, and in just a few minutes, the fox was sitting on the edge of the bed, the hedgehog kneeling behind him and gently rubbing his shoulders. The whitish kitsune was barely whimpering now, the heated storms of his mind calmed by his brother's soft touch. "...Now do you believe me?..." The blue hedgehog sibilated, his mouth close to the vulpine's ears. He nodded softly, sniffling, hugging himself.

"...S...Sonic....I-I don't know...what to...think of myself....any more..." He said quietly in a hoarse voice; no doubt from his sobbing. Sonic moved his hands from the fox's shoulders to his sensitive ears, rubbing them with a soft, gentle touch.

"...It's alright buddy, even I get angry sometimes... It's hard to control yourself when you can't think straight... Am I right?..." He asked in a subtle tone, continuing to rub his little brother's ears. It was like a drug, always made him think positive, even when he was feeling blue, like now. The fox nodded, the beginnings of a purring sound emanating from his throat, his eyelids gradually sliding over his bloodshot irises.

"...But....But I..." The vulpine started, but he was shushed again by the cobalt hedgehog, his ears still being rubbed oh-so-gently. His head started to move downwards, the relaxing touch lulling him into an unresponsive state of inner bliss. Before he was completely engulfed in the pleasant feeling, he heard heavy footsteps walk into the room, and picked his head up, looking to his right to see Knuckles, holding a colorful tray topped with a metallic tea pitcher and three durable mugs. There was steam flowing out of the top of the pitcher, showing that the liquid inside was hot.

"...Tails? Sonic? I brought you some of my special tea, I mean, if he's in the mood..." The echidna announced, almost a whisper. He brought the tray to the bed beside the two mammals, and set it down, the pitcher pointing at the kitsune and blowing comforting hot steam into his face. The hedgehog ceased his comfortable rubbing, and moved over slightly to make room for Knuckles on the bed. He climbed on softly as to not disturb his foxy friend, who simply stared at the tray, his eyes devoid of any clear emotion. The scarlet echidna went ahead and poured a substantial amount of the steaming liquid from the pitcher into a solid white mug, before picking it up and offering it to the vulpine sitting next to him. He took it, but instead of drinking the steaming beige liquid, he stared, seeing the wavering reflection of his eyes in it. His beautiful, calm sapphire eyes. Those eyes would be gone soon, replaced with unpleasant blood-red ones with slitted pupils. He couldn't pass a friendly gaze at anyone anymore, all he could do was practically threaten them without speaking. Even if a smile accompanied the gaze, it would simply make him look cynical and demonic, like he wanted to kill them. But wait... The book on mythical creatures he had studied long ago never said a Kyuubi's eyes would be red as blood, they simply stated they would be red. They might even turn out ruby-red, which isn't nearly as menacing as eyes that are a threatening demonic crimson.

"Yo Tails, are you gonna drink that? It gets cold real fast." Sonic stated, shoving a wedge into the fox's thought process, but he turned his head to acknowledge it anyway, seeing the hedgehog holding his own, steaming cobalt blue mug. He nodded, before bringing the mug to his lips and taking a small amount of the steaming liquid in his mouth. It tasted excellent, like honey and mint leaves, and it woke him up quite easily. Knuckles, again, was a better cook than most chefs at oriental restaurants, and he simply made the most delicious food and drinks in Station Square, at least in his friends' opinions. He noticed that he was holding the mug with his bloodstained right hand, which opened the floodgate of bad memories in his mind. He almost dropped the mug, but got control of himself soon enough, placing the steaming mug back on the tray and walking to the bathroom to wash his hands. When he got in, he flipped on the lightswitch, illuminating the large room, and stuck his right hand under the sink as he turned the lever with his left. Warm water flushed over the fur on his hand, washing away the blood easily due to the temperature. Finished, he turned the water off and flipped the lights back off, not forgetting to dry his hands on a green towel before he walked out.

He noticed that Sonic had a mischievous grin on his face as he looked at Knuckles, who was busy sipping his tea. Tails broke into a small smile, what was he up to now? "Hey Knuckles, can you tell me what time it is?" He asked, restrained laughter evident in his voice. The echidna turned his arm over to look at the watch on his wrist, in the process dumping his steaming-hot tea into the his groin, falling for a classic prank. His face immediately contorted into a look of embarrassment, and he stood up, looking at his soaked fur. He glared at the hedgehog.

"Sonic!!" He shouted angrily at the immature hedgehog, who was busy kicking his legs, laughing like a hyena. Knuckles, as hot-headed as he was, immediately grabbed the blue blur's legs and pulled him off the couch, his head hitting the carpet with an "Oof!". Tails sat his whitish rump back on the bed, chuckling as his two friends scuffled. Sonic grabbed the echidna's head and pulled it down, using his body weight to throw the scarlet mammal off balance and cause him to fall to the ground on top of him, pinning him to the ground quite quickly.

The cobalt hedgehog looked up in fear at his adversary, having lost his little battle. "Uh...I'm sorry Knux?" He muttered, smiling nervously.

"That's better." The strong one taunted, lifting his weight off the speedy mammal's noodley arms and standing up, allowing him to do the same. "Now if you excuse me, I have to go wash this stuff out of my legs before it gets sticky." He walked out the door and out of sight, looking at his groin area.

"Wanna start working out now, Sonic?" The kitsune sitting on the orange comforter asked, chuckling loudly. Sonic blushed slightly, sneaking a look at one of his arms.

"Oh, shut up, Tails!" He shouted, throwing his arms up in embarrassment. The fox only laughed in response, the fur on his chest wavering at the frantic motion. He stood up and slung an arm around his brother, smiling widely, showing his canines. He was going to taunt the hedgehog further, see how much of a reaction he would get.

"I wonder how much you weigh... I mean, you're so _short!" _The cobalt hedgehog flinched at the word "short", glancing up at the taller kitsune in disbelief.

"I'm not short! I'm actually taller than most Mobians!" He retorted, trying to preserve at least _some _of his dignity. He was speaking the truth; a lot of mobians never grew past 3'8", and he was 4'1", so therefore he was technically tall. Tails was taller, though, something he has been hating ever since it happened. Of course, he was still the short one of Team Sonic, and he did _not _like it. His 'little' brother rubbed his head fur, something that happened the other way around a long time ago, chuckling to his foxy self. The cobalt spikeball shoved his arm off and jumped away, glaring at the kitsune, an action who's meaning was easily defied by the blush present on his beige-furred cheeks. "Don't do that!" The vulpine simply laughed out loud, doubling over with his hands on his belly. Well, at least he was happy now... That thought lifted Sonic's feelings a little, and he gave an undetectable smile as he watched the hysterically laughing fox.

Moments later, the hedgehog and fox were sitting on the gold-lined purple couch in the living room once more, Sonic assuming a "The Thinker" pose while Tails simply stared at the unconscious wolf curled up in the leather armchair. Well what do you know, he wasn't the _only _one who occasionally curled up when he slept. He sighed, and stood up, walking over to the armchair the older canine was slumbering in, his quiet breathing almost unnoticeable under the A/C. He laid a gloveless hand on the wolf's head, scratching it a little bit and causing him to twitch. "Walter?" The vulpine asked, his muzzle close to the sleeping therapist's ear. He had already formulated a plan as to what to tell him when he woke up; He was going to tell him that he had fainted in the middle of the session and that the entire scary situation was a dream. Hey, it _was _possible to fall asleep just by resting your eyes for a few seconds, and when you "opened" them, you were already dreaming, so Tails was pretty sure this would work.

"Walter, wake up..." The wolf shifted his position slightly, before his eyes slowly creaked open. He raised his head to look at the fox who was a little too close to him, and immediately went upright at the sight of the very kitsune who had lunged at him earlier. He gasped for breath as he backed up in his chair again, fear apparent in his eyes.

"O-Oh my god," Walter forced out, but Tails shushed him.

"It's alright, it was just a dream. You fainted in the middle of the therapy session, and judging by the way you were whimpering, you probably dreamed some pretty crazy stuff." He lied, faking a chuckle. The wolf looked on in horror, still shocked by what happened before he went unconscious, his eyes deadlocked on the fox's face.

"...B-But you a-attacked m-me!" Tails felt a pang of guilt at the therapist's words, but didn't drop his friendly smile. His yellowish eyes drifted downward and to the left, his body still shaking. "...I-It was a dream?..." The eight-tailed kit nodded, before easing the wolf back into his previous seat in the chair. He picked up his little notepad, which was wedged inbetween the cushion and the arm of the chair, and flipped through it once again, trying to find where he was.

"Ah, uh, yes, here we are... I think we were talking about your...Your..." Walter said, before stopping short, his conscious telling him to not make his "Dream" actually happen. He looked at his notepad, which said, in neat writing, _Miles is supposedly going to grow a ninth tail soon. _He looked back and forth from the notepad to the fox, frowning. The kitsune was now sitting back on the couch with Sonic, although Knuckles was still absent, washing his groin to get the sticky tea out of it in the bathroom at the end of the hallway, and the whitish fox had such a cheerful disposition that Walter was not wanting to wreck his mood. He wasn't even sure when the "dream" started, let alone whether he should ask about the appendages protruding from his backside or not. He swallowed loudly, a look of nervous distress on his face. "Uh... Don't be o-offended by this, b-but apparently I was t-talking to you about y-your... t...t-tails..."

Tails's eye twitched, but he otherwise attempted to appear unaffected by the statement. "And the red one asked about you growing a ninth one. Speaking of which, where is he?" The wolf asked, looking back and forth in search of the knuckleheaded echidna.

"Uh, he's washing something out of his fur." Sonic interjected, pointing a thumb to his left.

"A-Alright..." Walter trained his focus on the young kitsune. "Now, M-Miles, can you tell me about this assumption that you're going to grow a ninth tail?" The fox in question's expression degraded slightly, and his namesakes stopped fluttering. The wolf stared at him in fear. "Uh, i-if that bothers y-you, then-"

"No, it's alright, just keep going." Tails muttered, a sad tone emerging in his voice, the kind of tone that said "Please stop...". The older canine cleared his throat and took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure, When he was set, he looked at his patient once more.

"A-actually, come to think of it, I think I know something about foxes with nine tails. They are called Kyuubis, correct?" Tails nodded reluctantly, still trying not to show his distress. "They are apparently magical creatures, but not one has ever been spotted in all of recorded history. I can see why you're nervous about it; you think G.U.N. might take you in for experimentation or something, but keep in mind that it is _very _illegal, and they are forbidden to by all social standards." For a split second, the eight-tailed vulpine's expression changed to a display of extreme shock and fear, as he had a new fear added to his list, but it vanished into a nonchalant expression in hearing that it was illegal. He placed a hand on the fur on his chest, trying to catch his breath.

"They're not going to do that, a-are they?!" He heard Sonic blurt out, and looked to his side to see that his big bro' was mortified, leaning forward as he gripped the edge of the couch, fear in his eyes. Walter shook his head.

"No, no, the only thing they are legally able to do is come to your house and ask a few questions. They can't do anything beyond that. Government agencies may be able to abduct whomever they wish in movies, but in real life they are forbidden by law." The therapist informed, and the hedgehog breathed a sigh of relief, easing back into his former position on the couch.

"Y-you're sure? I-I don't want them to take Miles away from me..." The cobalt spikeball asked again, his eyes drifting to the whitish fox sitting to his left.

"Quite." Walter fiddled with his pencil again. "And Miles..." His expression became empathetic as he gazed in the kit's direction, scanning him. "Why are you _really _afraid of becoming a Kyuubi?"

Tails look disturbed, and he twiddled his fingers, gazing down at his clawed hands. He was a canine, not a cat, so his claws were always at least somewhat out. He could extend them further by arching and tensing his hand, so he could do damage any time he wished, but he could never truly touch something softly with his fingertips, like when he was a small kit. Back when he had three tails, his claws were small, as they were incompletely formed, so he could feel things on the tips of his fingers. The kitsune was forced to give up that ability as he grew older, but after all, he didn't really _need _it... When he wore gloves, the tips were pointed due to the claws underneath, so he couldn't hide anything, and young mobians who didn't know better would think his fingers were actually shaped like that.

"Uh... I...I don't even know if it'll actually happen..." He muttered, not quite expecting anyone to hear, although Walter still heard it.

"You don't know if _what _will happen?" Said wolf asked, altering the tone of his voice to appear friendly and loving instead of serious like it had been almost the entire session. The whitish-furred vulpine's head sunk further, nervous.

"I...I think... I'll be... _Scary..._" That was the best way he could put it right now, because that was basically it; he would turn into something far more intimidating than he was now. Red eyes with slitted pupils... What was he going to do once it happened? Everyone would be horrified if they ever looked into his irises, and he would probably look ill-tempered and dangerous if there was ever a time when he wasn't smiling. And even worse, those "magical" powers of his... They might get out of control. What would happen? No, it couldn't be like that, he wasn't a killer, he wasn't!

"Scary? How? Please explain, Miles." The wolf questioned, his yellow eyes glowing with concern.

"You wouldn't understand..." The off-white fox muttered, still staring at his hands. The hedgehog sitting to his left leaned over and put his muzzle to the kitsune's drooping ear.

"You want me to tell him?" Sonic whispered, causing Tails to turn his head to look at him with sad, pleading eyes. "Alright then..." The hedgehog took a deep breath, steadying himself as he prepared to talk with the therapist.

"Tai-... I mean, Miles is worried about how his eyes will turn red and his pupils will turn into slits. He thinks that people will be scared of him, even moreso than some of them are now." He said calmly, a hand laid across his brother's back. Walter nodded and wrote some more things down on his notepad.

"Anything else?" He inquired, gesturing with his hand for the blue blur to say more. The fox let out an uncontrollable whimper as his head sunk further into his hands, and he shuddered, gritting his teeth. The cobalt hedgehog looked on in empathy at his little bro', trying to calm him through rubbing his ears, but it didn't seem to be working this time. He frowned, concerned about the sobbing kitsune, wishing there was something he could do... The very thing that Tails feared was indeed going to happen, the hedgehog couldn't stop it. All he could do was try and help the miserable little kit get through these last few days. After that, well... He didn't know... He decided to just change the subject, as talking about the whitish fox's future was obviously upsetting him.

"Erm, nope, that's it!" Sonic stated, giving a cheesy smile to the white wolf. He nodded, and wrote some more things down on his notepad.

"Are you s-"

"Yes." The cerulean spikeball interrupted, his expression becoming slightly stern as he continued comforting his little brother. He looked at the clock, which said 6:32 PM, before his gaze returned to the therapist. "I think your time here is up anyway." Walter looked at the clock himself, before uttering a short "Oh..." and standing up, realizing that he had overstayed his service by half an hour. He slipped his notepad into his pocket, before smoothing out his clothes and stretching.

"I-I'm really sorry for upsetting you, Miles..." He said, casting a sorrowful glance toward the fox, who had tears streaming out of his closed eyes as he sobbed silently, staining his muzzle. The cobalt hedgehog who was comforting the eight-tailed kit glared at the therapist in a way that said "Leave. Now.". Walter complied, briskly walking to the front door. He opened it, revealing a jet black Dodge parked on the dirt driveway, and gave one last apologetic glance at his patient, before he disappeared behind the doorway.

Sonic returned his attention to the crying kitsune sitting next to him, continuing to gently rub his ears. "It's alright, Tails... It's okay..." He sibilated, but the fox simply whimpered again, his breathing shaky. The sound of a door opening could be heard from down the hallway to their left, and the hedgehog turned his head to see a hand with red fur on it pushing open a white door. Knuckles walked out, his underside nice and dry. "Gee Knux, what took you so long?" He asked, and the echidna laughed out loud, clutching his stomach.

"Man, Sonic... I'm not quite as unsanitary as you think. It sometimes takes me a while to get every last drop of-" Knuckles noticed that his foxy friend was upset, as he was bent over, head in his tear-soaked hands. "...Is Tails okay?" The kitsune in question raised his head at hearing his name, looking at the echidna down the hallway, his sapphire blue eyes swimming with tears. Sonic continued stroking the fox's ears, trying to calm him, but was making no visible progress, as he was still whimpering softly. The scarlet echidna joined his two friends on the couch, the kit's gaze following him as he walked around the furniture and sat down. "Are you okay, Tails?" He asked, his violet irises staring into his friend's sapphire blue ones.

"...I...I'm f-fine..." He whimpered, looking downward, a clear lie to anyone's ears. He shakily got up from the couch, walking to the door that Walter had left through moments earlier. He reached for the doorknob, but a beige hand suddenly grabbed his wrist, causing him to look to his left to see Sonic, who had recently ran up to him.

"Where you going, little buddy?" The cobalt hedgehog asked, looking up at the fox with concerned eyes. He took a quick look at the side window. "It's raining outside, and getting dark. You can't just take off like this!"

Raining? Tails looked out the side window as well, to see a thick blanket of rain filling the air and creating constant small splashes on the soil below. When did it start raining? "...I...w-want to...t-take a walk..." He muttered, turning the doorknob, but his clawed hand was yanked away by his legal guardian.

"You're not going anywhere, not without me, not in this weather." Sonic stated, walking inbetween the kitsune and the door and crossing his arms. "And at _least _put a shirt on." The off-white canine remembered that he had taken off his shirt, and instantly saw the hedgehog's point. He was still wearing his pants and shoes, but he had taken off his shirt quite a while ago, probably because he was hot or something. He nodded and walked back to their room, rubbing his eyes with his arm as he disappeared behind the doorway.

"You sure he's okay? He looks really sad..." Knuckles said, concerned for the fox who was currently slipping on a blue tanktop which sported the words "Bring it on, suckah!" in white text on the front. Heh, attitude shirts... Tails's wardrobe was full of them. He even got in trouble with Sonic once for trying to go out with a shirt that said "When I look at you, I see the words "FRESH MEAT".", probably because it would scare the public. How ironic. Soon, the 17-year old kit came back from his and Sonic's room, wearing the blue tanktop that easily revealed his shoulders. The cobalt hedgehog shook his head.

"No, no Tails. You can't wear that when it's raining." He lectured, shoving his index finger into his little bro's chest. It was exposing too much of his body to the rain, which would surely give him hypothermia. The whitish kitsune sighed in response, gripping the bridge of his nose. "Although, I'll let you wear that if you go get your jacket." Tails complied, walking back to their room to fetch his jacket, returning only moments later with the garment, which was covered in a cool-looking wind grey-and-white wind pattern. Sonic had bought that for him a few months ago, and although he was initially reluctant since it brought attention to his fur color, he eventually agreed to buying it. It was even a good size for him, too.

The cobalt hedgehog smiled. "Alright, let me get _my _jacket..."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tails shivered, hugging himself as he sat on a wooden bench with his big brother, Sonic. It was very depressing outside, cloudy sky, everything was tinted white due to the rain, and the kitsune was starting to regret going outside in the first place. The streets were covered with flowing water, a small flood, and the rain was pouring immensely. His jacket was dripping with water, and his clothes were soaked, dampening the off-white fur underneath and turning it a deep grey. There were a few people walking about, not many, and they were all wearing coats to protect their bodies from the elements.

"You wanna go home, Tails?" The hedgehog next to him asked, bumping him with his elbow. He didn't ask it in a "I told you so" way, more like an "I want to go home too" way, backed by how he was shivering as well. The whitish canine sighed, hugging himself tighter as the rain continued to pour down on him. Looking to his right, he spied two dark figures in the fog walking at a reasonable pace in his general direction, their shoes, or should he say, _boots_, making small splashes in the minuscule river. Yes, there was fog. It was probably caused by the rain and all, and it inhibited all vision past a few meters, obscuring just about everything from Tails's view. He almost couldn't see the building on the other side of the street, let alone the figures that were much farther down the pavement. As they came closer, they slowly took shapes...

Soon, they were close enough to make out details, and the whitish kitsune saw that they were two dogs, young adults, probably best friends by the way they were chatting to eachother. They looked similar, both having brown fur, pointed ears, and all, and even the same blue jeans. They were wearing different jackets, though, one was black, and one was blue. The vulpine's eyes followed them as they came closer, and when his eyes met with the one wearing the black jacket, he immediately stopped talking.

"Hey... Look at that guy, Tyler!" Tails overheard him say with his sensitive ears. The dog in the blue jacket, "Tyler", he presumed, directed his gaze at him as well. Gritting his teeth in embarrassment, he noticed his namesakes were hanging off the bench to his right, and had a mind to pull them up, but where would he put them?... He pulled his hood farther down over his face, just trying to act nonchalant, not to attract attention.

"You think he's some kinda freak of nature or some-Mmph!" "Tyler" said quietly, but not quiet enough, before the other dog put a hand over his mouth. The whitish vulpine looked to his left, to see that Sonic, who had his hood off, was looking between the dogs and Tails with a freaked-out expression.

"Ssh! He might hear us!" The other dog hissed through gritted teeth, looking at the kitsune, but not seeing his face thanks to the white jacket. The blue-clod canine broke free of his friend and splashed through the water, which seemed to have risen a couple inches, to the whitish vulpine.

"Hey, uhm, dude, are you a mutant or something?" "Tyler" asked, causing the fox to retract slightly, his unseen face very embarrassed. The cobalt hedgehog sitting next to him stood up, his expression slightly angry.

"Hey! Don't talk to my little brother that way!" He shouted, pointing an accusing finger into Tyler's face. He was taller than the dog, so he could easily intimidate him, causing him to fold his ears in fear. Tails looked up at him, suprised at how defensive he was being.

"Sonic, don't do that..." He said quietly, but the hedgehog ignored him, too focused on the oppressive dog standing in the water in front of him.

"What the hell do _you _know!? What makes you think you have the right to-" His sentence was stopped short by his little brother laying a palm on his shoulder, his hood having fallen off his head, exposed to the rain. His sapphire blue eyes were staring up at him in a gentle fashion, neither saying a word. Their gazing was interrupted by a loud BLANG on the city intercom, and a friendly male voice came into audibility.

**"ATTENTION CITIZENS OF STATION SQUARE. WE ARE EXPERIENCING A FLASH FLOOD. IF YOU ARE INSIDE YOUR HOMES, STAY THERE. IF YOU ARE WANDERING ABOUT, SEEK HIGHER GROUND, **_**ESPECIALLY **_**IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO SWIM. FOR THOSE WHO CAN, PLEASE NOTE THAT SWIMMING MAY BE FASTER THAN WADING. THANK YOU."**

Tails stood up, a small state of panic entering his mind. "Sonic, we need to go..." He stated, pointing a thumb over his shoulder, regardless of whether that was the correct direction or not. Sonic couldn't swim, so he would surely drown if they didn't find safety. They were both splashed with icy water as the two dogs ran away as fast as they could, trying to find safety themselves amidst the rising liquid. It wasn't rising very fast, only about an inch per five minutes, but-... Actually, that _was _fast. Instinctively, the kitsune walked behind his hedgehog friend and hooked his arms under his shoulders, securing a grip on him.

"Tails, what are you-..." The eight-tailed vulpine revved up his namesakes, quite fast as opposed to how helicopter blades spin up, before lifting himself, and Sonic, off of the water-covered cement, his appendages like a solid white disc behind him. The cobalt hedgehog gasped, not having been lifted off the ground by his best friend in several years. In just a few seconds, the two former heroes were rapidly scaling the tall building beside them, the cold air whipping at their faces. Sonic started to get butterflies in his stomach from the sensation of flight, and was periodically looking downward toward the river that was quickly vanishing in the fog, before his fear of water took hold of him once again. He looked up above him, to see the kit's white muzzle looking upwards, focused. "T....T-Tails?" His voice was lost in the fog.

Tails eventually reached the roof of the building, and set down his spiky brother on the pavement, before stopping the rotation of his namesakes and planting his feet down. The hedgehog was speechless. "T....Tails?!...How did you-... I mean you haven't done that in-..." He stuttered, turning around to face his foxy friend, an amazed expression lining his face. The vulpine just smiled happily, tilting his head to the side in a cute manner. "I...I-I'm so proud of you!" He finally let out, wrapping his arms around his li'l bro. "Y-You haven't flown in... In years! A-and you finally managed to do it!!"

"Yeah, about that, Sonic, I figured out how to do it at this point just a few days ago." He stated, smiling as he embraced the spiky hedgehog. They broke apart prominently, and the cobalt mammal walked over to the edge of the roof's wall to peer over it. The fog was so thick that you couldn't see the street, but you could _hear _the flowing water just a few stories below his position. His happy, proud disposition vanished in an instant, his ears folding as he quickly backed away, not wanting to fall into the water that was probably a foot deep by now.

"W-Well, uh, this is c-certainly _higher ground_, eh?" He stuttered, smiling nervously at his foxy brother, who chuckled brightly.

"We're gonna be up here for a while... The flood hasn't even become full yet." Tails said, taking a seat on the concrete below him. "Unless you want me to fly you back home or some-" His sentence was cut short as he felt the energy in his namesakes suddenly rush through his body, startling him and making him jump. Sonic looked at him with confusion at his sudden cease of speech.

"You okay little buddy?" He asked, walking over and sitting down next to him. The kitsune shook his head to himself, trying to get his thoughts together. This feeling... it was so... exhilarating! He felt... stronger... and faster... than before, like the energy was enhancing his physical capability. He felt like he could lift a car, and then throw it into the 7th story of a building without even breaking a sweat!

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He responded, trying to reassure his big bro'. It was then that his rightmost tail flicked all of the sudden, hitting Sonic in the back of the head and causing him to yelp. He immediately shot a panicked look at the hedgehog. "I-I'm sorry!!"

"N-no worries Tails, it's alright....Ow..." He said, rubbing the impact point. "So how high do you think the water will get?"

"I don't know, maybe..." He sat up and looked over the edge of the building himself, his eyes just barely making out a hint of blue in the thick grey fog. "Seven feet?" The hedgehog behind him sweatdropped, realizing that that level of water was high enough to drown in. The fox turned around and sat on the edge of the wall, his namesakes hanging over the long drop to the ground. He clenched the cement block nearest to him, releasing some of his pent-up stress from how he was treated every day by everyone around him. They all avoided him. Well, you know what? SCREW them. He has all the friends he needs, and they all accept him, so why should he care? The cement block in his hand made an extremely loud _**CRACK**_ as he squeezed it absent-mindedly, attracting the attention of the hedgehog who was walking toward him. Tails, hearing the sound himself, lifted his hand, gazing at the cement block that now had several cracks in it. He looked at his clawed hand, and then at Sonic, surprised.

"...Tails? Are you sure you're okay?" The shiny cobalt hedgehog asked, looking between the cracked cement block and his brother's face.

"Y-yeah, that block was probably just old or something." He quickly said, trying to find an excuse. The strange thing was, this section of the city was actually very new, finished only a few months ago, so the cement block couldn't have cracked easily. He wasn't even squeezing that hard...

"Wait..." He said out loud, his face deep in thought with his mouth open. What if that was caused by that rush of _chakra_ just a few minutes ago? It might have made him stronger. Was that a good thing... or a bad thing? He could defend himself if the haters ever got rowdy...but he might go too far... He stared into space at the floor at his feet, contemplating his situation.

"What?" Sonic inquired, taking a seat next to him opposite of the cracked cement block. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

They sat in silence for about forty-five minutes, enough time for the flood to run its course, and speaking of which, Sonic was huddled next to an air vent pipe jutting out from the building and curving back into the pavement, wanting to be as far away from the water as possible. The whitish vulpine sat next to him, fingering a fist-sized stone that he found while pacing around the roof of the building. He turned it back and forth, inspecting the porous object. Another loud _BLANG _on the city intercom.

**"STATION SQUARE, THE FLASH FLOOD IS NOW OVER. RETURN TO YOUR HOMES AT WILL." **The friendly male voice announced, signifying that the water was no longer blanketing the streets. The strong fox stood up, gripping the stone softly as to not break it.

"You think we should leave now, Sonic?" He turned his head to the spot where the hedgehog was sitting, to see that he wasn't there. His eyebrows raised. "Sonic?" He walked around the ventilation pipes, still not finding him. "SONIC??" He called out, raising one hand to amplify his voice.

"Hey, Miles! I'm down here!" He heard the cobalt hedgehog shout from over the very edge he was sitting on a while ago. He quickly ran and bent over it, looking downward to see a small blue figure waving at him from the sidewalk. Huh, the fog must have cleared out a bit. He started to wonder how he had gotten down there, but then remembered that Sonic knew how to take a fall without sustaining leg damage, and had probably just jumped. It was pretty simple; just don't lock your legs, and make them strong through excercise. He went ahead and jumped over the edge, falling quite a few stories as his hedgehog friend watched. When he collided with the sidewalk, he simply bent his legs and used his strength to support himself, doing little but kicking up a dust cloud beneath his feet. Sonic whistled in a congratulatory fashion, patting his little bro' on the shoulder. "Nice work!" The eight-tailed fox smiled slightly, spinning the stone in his hand on the tip of his claw.

"Thanks!" He flicked the stone up into the air and caught it in his hand again, a maneuver the hyperactive spikeball had performed countless times with his own objects. The two brothers continued walking down the not-so-dry sidewalk, turning a corner to see two mobians standing and chatting near a tree. Yes, there were trees in the middle of the city. It was for decoration, to break the monotony of the city's pale urban colors, and it did a very good job of doing so. Oh great, more people... Tails's good mood quickly changed to a shy one, and he pulled his hood over his head again, not wanting to be noticed. The two mobians, a tall brown bull and a shorter grey raccoon, looked at the fox, who was currently fumbling with the stone in his hand again. The bull gained a sneer on his face, and the whitish vulpine knew exactly what was coming.

"Hey look, it's a freak!" The bull said, elbowing the raccoon, who wasn't quite as confident as he was on this subject. They could see his tails, as he had just turned the corner and they were easily visible. "Where'd _you _come from?!" He shouted to Tails, who acted as if he hadn't heard the insult. "Where, huh?! You look dirty... You an orphan? What, yer mummy didn't want you?!" Just ignore him, Tails. "And who's the BLUE guy? Guess freaks like to hang out together, huh!?" Ignore... He didn't lift his head, didn't show his face to these... Assholes. From that point, the rest of his thoughts were negative. "I bet you fall over backwards a lot or something!" He gripped the stone in his hand tighter, starting to feel angry at the bull, but apparently he took notice. "Oh, you're angry now? What're ya' gonna-" The rock was suddenly crushed into a fine powder, the fox's hand gripping the gravel that was left behind as the rest of it fell to the ground. This left the bull without words, his face awestruck.

"Hey man I dunno about this, he looks _really _strong..." The raccoon next to him warned in a slightly nasal voice, pulling on the arm of the taller mobian.

"Shut up, I-I got this handled. He don't look so tough." Tails proceeded to lift his head up, pulling his hood off and exposing his angry face, causing Sonic to gasp slightly. His eyes... they were blood-red, with slitted pupils, instead of the normal sapphire blue that they usually were. He was growling loudly, teeth clenched, fangs bared, furious. The bull looked slightly scared of him, eyebrows tilted upwards. "Uhh..."

"Oh maaaan, you pissed him off!" The raccoon shouted, stepping backward a few times. The raging vulpine lifted one of his hands up to chest level, claws employed, a clear warning to the bull. Only, it looked like it was on fire. It had a deep orange fire-shaped aura around it, caused by the magical energy that was rushing through his veins, which was clearly scaring the bull. Nevertheless, he walked up to the fox, who was slightly taller than he was, feigning courage.

"Y-you don't scare me! Th-that's a pretty light show, but I know that inside, you're just a scrawny, weak, scared little-" Tails shoved a downward hook square into his chest, which forced him to the ground, his back colliding with it and causing his vision to flash white. The kitsune jumped on top of him and pinned him to the ground with his superior strength, before raising up his energy-filled claw, preparing to strike. "No! NO!! Don't hurt me!!!" The brown bull cried, but to no avail. The fox simply snarled at him, looking very demonic in doing so.

Despite the bull's pleas,

he swung his clawed hand downward.

_To be continued..._

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**Sonic: ...**

**Knuckles: ...**

**Me: :D **

**Sonic: Oh... Oh my god... (Runs to the bathroom, before throwing up)**

**Me: LOLOLOLOLOL-(Cough) (Cough) ...Hah HAH, a cliffhanger! :D I honestly can't remember last time I did this, but HEY, I got a chapter done before Spring Break was over! XD Woot! See, I DID put in a violent scene. Or rather, a preview to one. You'll just have to use your imaginations to satisfy yourselves until I get the next chapter up. Also, CLICK THE GREY BUTTON WITH GREEN TEXT ON IT. I know there wasn't candy last time, but-... Uh... Th-there's CHOCOLATE this time! :D I swear! Click it! PLZ?**


	6. Rouge comes back!

**Me: Sorry this chapter took so long. And by so long I mean half the summer. :F**

**Sonic: There's a lot to read though, so you'll enjoy it.**

**Me: I also deleted A Secret's Vain on my previous account. If you wanted to read it, it's too late now... xD I wanted to sever all ties between this series and the one it branched off of. If you remember, good for you. I sent THAT PERSON a message a long time ago asking if I could sequel his story, but I couldn't get PMs on my previous account, so I never heard his answer. It might have been no. So just in case, I severed the ties. White has grown into a full-fledged story that didn't need some raunchy prequel. :)**

**Sonic: There's also another reason he deleted it. Back then he was maybe twelve, and he didn't understand the concept of gay relationships, and the story was rather... inappropriate in that fashion.**

**Me: Yup, that pretty much sums it up. I'm fifteen now. :D Woot. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

**ALSO: Warning, there is slight TailsxRouge in this chapter. Ya' know, just one-sided fluff. It's funny. XD Laugh with me. OH HO HO HO HO HO HO**

_**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**_

**White**

**Chapter VI: Rouge comes back!**

**Written by Sparkz**

Sharp claws sliced through delicate flesh, crimson blood flowing from the five gashes that resulted. A scream, a cry of pain, rippled through the misty air, unaffecting a certain light-orange fox, but mortifying the blue hedgehog standing just a few feet from the scene. Sonic couldn't bring himself to say anything. All he could do was stare at this... this _creature _that _wasn't _his best friend. Tails would never, ever be so angry... He would never hurt someone like this... Never... A nasty thought entered the cobalt hedgehog's head. What if... Tails had _changed? _What if he'll never go back to normal? What if he'll always be violent and irritable for the rest of his life? No... No, no, it hasn't happened. No. He couldn't let his best friend sink to such a level, he _had _to do something, _now._

"Miles!" He yelled, running forward and tackling the red-eyed fox, knocking him off the bull and causing the two brothers to crash into a bench. The bull quickly got to his feet and ran away as fast as he could, clutching his cheek which was leaking a violent red fluid, and taking his raccoon buddy with him. Sonic tried to pin the raging fox to the ground, but failed miserably due to his drastically inferior strength, and was quickly tossed away by the vulpine, his back slamming into a concrete pole holding up the awning of a convenience store. When he recovered from his daze, he saw Tails back on his feet in an attacking position, snarling and growling in his direction. HIs eyes widened. "No...No! Tails, STOP!" The pale orange kitsune appeared to have not heard him, and was walking slowly in his direction, claws extended and fangs bared. He quickly got to his feet as well, but his feet were glued to the pavement. Something told him that it wasn't his best friend stepping angrily towards him, it was a big, hungry predator that wanted to eat him alive. Conflicting thoughts flooded the hedgehog's subconscience. Should he run? Or should he stay and try to calm him down? But he was too weak, and there was no one else nearby. Tails could murder him, right here, right now, and there was nothing he, or any of his other friends, could do about it. No, there _has _to be some good left in the kitsune in his current state, angry or not.

The pale orange vulpine continued to snarl, getting closer with each step. "Tails, stop! I-It's me! Your best friend, Sonic! C'mon little buddy, I-I know you're still in there..." Sonic shouted, trying to bring his friend back to his senses. It wasn't working. The angry fox leapt forward, covering the last few feet to the hedgehog in a snap, and pinning his arms to the concrete pole. He remembered the last time this happened, just earlier today, when the vulpine tore five gashes in his cheek. The scars were still there, too, as he had taken off the gauze a half hour ago, and they were stinging quite a lot in the cold wind. "Tails... Please, stop... I thought we were family..."

The fox abruptly stopped his growling, and his furious expression gained a hint of sorrow, but his intense glare refused to falter. The fox's thoughts were probably conflicting intensely due to what he had just heard. He twitched a few times, before releasing the cobalt spikeball's arms and gripping his head, clenching his eyes and facing downward. **"Uuuggghhh..." **He groaned, trying to get control over himself. Wait... There was something wrong with his voice... It was gruff and sounded like it was forced. The blue hedgehog laid a hand on his foxy friend's shoulder, detaching himself from the concrete pole behind him.

"It's alright, Tails... Just come back... Come back..." He said, touching his shoulder lightly as to not startle him.

**"...Get...away..." **Tails growled, a warning. **"...Go..." **He opened one of his red eyes, glaring at the hedgehog who was trying to comfort him.

The cobalt hedgehog moved his hand from the fox's shoulder to his head, still touching ever-so-lightly. "It's okay... Just calm down... Your big bro's here..." He said, just above a whisper. The kitsune seemed to be calming down, as he stopped breathing so heavily, and the fire-like energy disappeared from his hands. A moment later, his fierce blood-red eyes faded to a gentle sapphire, and his angered expression changed to one of exhaustion. Sonic eventually coaxed his little brother into sitting on a nearby bench with him, scooping up flowing water from the ground below to wash the fox's hands, whose fingertips were coated with fresh blood. It hadn't had time to soak in, so it vanished from his fur quite easily. He looked at Tails's face, seeing the ashamed expression on it.

"Tails, I'm not mad at you. I'm not." The cobalt hedgehog stated, trying to lift his brother's mood. The eight-tailed fox cast a sorrowful gaze to him, a soft whimper escaping his throat, before looking back down at the flowing water. Sonic placed a furred hand on the kitsune's shoulder. "He deserved it. You had every right to be angr-"

"Shut up. What do _you _know?" The kitsune interrupted, his gaze locked on the shallow river at his feet. Sonic tried as hard as he could to understand and help him through this stage of his life, but it still wasn't enough. He _still _didn't understand. The cobalt hedgehog moved his hand up to the fox's head, before softly scratching behind one of his ears.

"Well... I guess I _don't _know. I'm still trying to help, Tails..." He asked, moving his other hand to scratch behind the fox's other ear. That _always _lifted the eight-tailed vulpine's mood, and before he knew it, he was making a soft, pleased purring sound. "You're not gonna give up, right? You're gonna keep going for me?" He nodded softly, agreeing with the hedgehog. After a few minutes, Sonic stopped, standing up suddenly. "Uh... I gotta take a leak. I'll be back in a bit." He stated, before walking a few paces over to a door to what looked like a restaurant and walking inside.

Tails sighed, looking at the sign above the door that his spiky brother entered moments before. It said "CLUB VIXEN" in neat neon-pink cursive writing on it, like it was a bar of some sort. Sonic returned earlier than the kitsune thought he would, for he used the bathroom fast like everything else, and his fur was ruffled up all over, a freaked-out look on his face.

"I just had pole sex..." He muttered, before cracking up, doubling over. Tails smiled at the hedgehog's comment, finding it rather hilarious. "That place is a strip club for foxes." He said, a thumb over his shoulder, smiling oddly. "I'm not letting you go in there until you're 18, though, so don't even think about it!" The whitish kitsune chuckled, watching the cobalt spikeball walk to him and sit down on the bench once more. "I'll take you there on your birthday, if you want." The vulpine shook his head, still giggling.

"I'm fine, thanks. ...Although it would be nice to see some hot fox women on poles!" He joked, cracking up once more.

"Pole sex?" More chuckling.

"Of course!" Tails said in his best British accent, making a monocle with his hand.

"Man, if Amy was here right now, we would both have gotten slapped countless times." The blue pincushion stated, causing more incessant laughter.

"Hey! What about ME?" They both heard a voice say, and they turned their heads to see a certain scarlet echidna running towards them, sporting a red jacket and pants, the same shade of red as his fur. He slowed down as he neared them, sitting down on the bench next to Tails. "Sup? I came here because I thought Sonic had drowned because of the flash flood." He sneered, earning a glare from said hedgehog.

"Nah Knucklehead, I don't think you're cut out for pole sex!" Tails cracked up again at the blue blur's comment, holding his chest as he laughed. Knuckles glared back briefly, but refused to acknowledge the hedgehog's insult.

"Now, Tails, I need to talk to you about something." The echidna said, attracting the attention of said kitsune. "I think it's time you started being assertive about yourself." The whitish vulpine raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He inquired, confused as to the scarlet mammal's point.

"You're too submissive! You gotta toughen up and confront the guys who mess with you. If you just let everyone walk all over you, you're not gonna get anywhere in life socially." Knuckles explained, relating to how the fox often just _let_ people make fun of his physical body structure without so much as a word.

"Knuckles is right, Tails. I wouldn't really put it like that, but he's barking up the right tree when he says that you need to stop letting people walk all over you." Sonic suddenly added, causing Tails to turn his head toward the hedgehog. "I know you're going through some pretty weird stuff right now, but you kinda need to... Uh..." He put a hand on his chin. "...I'll just let Knux say it."

"Tell 'em to screw off?" The echidna asked, and Sonic nodded in approval. "You _look _pretty strong, Tails, so it wouldn't be hard to intimidate someone." The kitsune had a muscular body, from his years of machine-work, so he could indeed tell someone to stop making fun of him, and they would comply easily. As Knuckles and Sonic continued in their conversation, the door to their left, the one to Club Vixen, opened. All three Mobians looked at the door to see a young orange female fox in a bikini walking relaxedly out of it, before walking to the other side of the street.

"Well, uh, as I was saying, you kinda need to-..." Sonic's sentence was cut short as he saw that the eight-tailed kit was gawking, mouth open, at the strolling vixen. A sly grin slowly spread across the hedgehog's beige muzzle. "What's up, little buddy?" He asked, and the fox immediately snapped out of his trance and looked back at him.

"Uh... N-nothing." He said, acting as if the previous few seconds hadn't happened.

"...Reaaallly?" Sonic teased, slinging an arm around the kitsune's shoulder. "Nooothing?" The fox's cheeks were starting to turn a light shade of pink, and he shook his head.

"Oh don't be like that, Sonic." Knuckles interjected, at first sounding as if he was on Tails's side. "You heard what the therapist said!" His voice tone changed to a teasing one, and he slid a finger up against the vulpine's cheek fur, causing him to flinch and move away. Out of nowhere, the flowing water at their feet leapt up and splashed Sonic in the back of the head, causing him to yelp in surprise and jump out of the bench. The other two mammals laughed hysterically at the aquaphobic hedgehog, receiving a glare in reponse, before he ignored it altogether. They continued to chat for the next ten minutes, mostly about Tails. And most of these things were rather embarrassing. First off was his hormones, which, mind you, wasn't _too _bad, and ended quickly, but next was the soon-to-be-nine appendages hanging from his backside. He did not approve of this. Oddly, the water that was flowing at their feet never dropped below a few inches, seeming to be flowing in from an endless source. The water was ice-cold, so their feet were becoming rather chilled very quickly. Knuckles had voted to walk home instead of run, a suggestion that both of the other mammals were quite for at the moment, wanting a nice change from the hasty method of travel they usually used, and were soon upright and going. Sonic started whistling a rather nostalgic tune, causing the other two to look at the short member of the group. He abruptly stopped on realization of being stared at, and cast an arched eyebrow at his two closest friends.

"What?" Sonic asked, wondering why he was being stared at.

"That melody sounds kinda familiar, Sonic..." Knuckles said slowly. The blue hedgehog looked up at the tallest member of the group; Tails.

"I know that Tails isn't gonna listen to me," He looked back at Knuckles. "but do you know what a special stage is, Knux?" The echidna shook his head, while the vulpine slapped a palm over his face. Not this again...

"No, I don't think so." The echidna stated, and Sonic prepared to speak.

"Do you remember waaay back when, when we had to find all seven Chaos Emeralds to defeat Eggman and such?"

"Yeah?"

"Well the third time we had to do it, well... uh... Well, we had to jump into a giant, rotating ring, and it took us to this spherical place with blue and red spheres, and we had to touch all the blue ones to get the emerald, and they made little WAEOO WAEOO WAEOO WAEOO sounds when we touched-"

"Sonic." Tails interrupted, a very dissatisfied expression lining his facial features. "That's ridiculous." The hedgehog looked back up at him.

"No really, we did! It was back in 1994, and Tails, you were there too, and-"

"What are you talking about? I wasn't even alive back then!" The eight-tailed fox argued, disbelief lining his voice. Sonic put a hand on his chin.

"But I swear you were with me that whole time..."

"Sonic, listen. How many years ago was that?"

"...Twenty-three." The cobalt hedgehog concluded after a moment of thought.

"And how old am I?" Sonic was at a loss for words. The pre-kyuubi had made a convincing argument, as he was only just becoming an adult.

"...Almost eighteen?"

"And you're _sure _this happened five years before I was born?" The hedgehog sighed.

"Fine, fine, let's drop it." Soon Team Sonic was sitting near a Mexican restaurant, continuing to chat about various things. So to speak, Tails wasn't sitting. Sonic and Knuckles had taken a seat on his many appendages, something that the kitsune had just barely agreed to. Knuckles had convinced him to let them sit, although the fox continuously whipped his head left and right, scanning his surroundings to make sure absolutely no one was around to see.

"Tails, really, I doubt anyone cares. In fact, I bet they're jealous of how strong your tails are." Knuckles stated reassuringly, looking up at the nervous vulpine, but it failed to calm him.

"_Why _did I agree to this again? This only makes me stand out even more!" Tails said, looking at Sonic, who was busy twiddling his thumbs. Then his face brightened up with inspiration.

"Like Knux said, it's so you can show off the fact that you can probably..." He put on his actually very convincing Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. "Crush their TINY skulls as if they were potatoes!" Knuckles started laughing at the hedgehog's various muscle-man poses, their amusing nature only amplified by Sonic's complete lack of upper body muscles. The vulpine, however, was not amused.

"Sonic, give me _one _reason why I shouldn't catapult you into that building over there." He growled, glaring at his legal guardian, who retreated slightly.

"S-sorry." The blue blur apologized. The Blue and Red ones eventually got to their feet, and continued walking alongside their kitsune friend. They passed by Superiority Park, at which point Tails stopped and stared, awestruck. The entire park was covered with flowing water! Superiority Park was actually shaped sort of like a shallow bowl, the center being lower than the edges, so it held water easily. In fact, the water wasn't just rushing in one end and out the other, it was swirling at a moderate speed, a whirlpool. Sonic, with the help of Knuckles, eventually pulled the eight-tailed fox away and convinced him to keep going. When they passed by the G.U.N. customer support office building, which looked surprisingly casual for a predominant government agency, Knuckles shot the bird at one of the cameras, causing the other two members of the group to slap their palms on their faces. The scarlet echidna really, really hates G.U.N. for some reason. It could possibly be because the firearm-named government tried to steal the Master Emerald countless times for "research", as the echidna put it, but he eventually decided to move it off of Angel island and into the sub-basement of their house, removing it from G.U.N.'s reach. Sonic occasionally cracked jokes about the large gemstone one day deciding to lift their house into the air, and thanks to Knuckles's improved sense of humor since they were younger, he actually laughed at them.

As they neared the outskirts of the city, the most familiar object in existence to all three of them; Rings, started to appear. The golden rings never appeared in the innermost parts of cities for some reason, so they never saw them there. Sonic occasionally saw a few clusters as he dashed to and from Station Square, but not very many. And the strange thing was, whenever one collected a ring, two more seemed to take its place, giving the impression that they were multiplying behind everyones' backs. And they probably since the Mobians came to Earth, via means that absolutely NO ONE seems to remember, the rings came with them, and seemed to spread across near the entire planet. They weren't a nuisance or anything, they just floated here and there as silent as can be. Tails grabbed a lone ring that was floating at the usual 2-and-a-quarter feet above the grass, examining the mystical object. Knuckles, after a period of staring at the kitsune, snapped his fingers with inspiration.

"Hey Tails, maybe you can wear those rings on your tails!" Both hedgehog and fox gave him a weird look. "...What? It could work!" He snatched the ring from the eight-tailed kit's hand and grabbed one of his appendages in sequence, trying to fit the circlet onto it. Unbeknownst to him, this was extremely painful for the kit. The fox yelped in pain, flicking his tails sharply and throwing the red one onto his back. Upon hearing the "thud" from the collision, the vulpine whipped around, a panicked expression on his face.

"W-wait! I didn't mean t-"

"Tails! It's alright, I'm fine... Ow..." The echidna interrupted, slowly getting back to his feet. Tails decided to just drop it, which was somewhat difficult, and walked ahead, the others following him. The outskirts of the city were like the innards, except there were more plants and such. And there was _still _a flood. Knuckles moved closer to Sonic and leaned to his ear.

"Hey... Do you know why his tails are glowing brighter than I remember?" He whispered, and the cobalt hedgehog shrugged in response.

"I don't know... I think it's just his energy getting stronger or something." Sonic whispered back, hoping the fox couldn't hear them. "I really hope nothing bad happens on his birthday... Because I don't want him to become destructive or any-"

"I can hear you, you know." Tails interrupted with a slightly angry tone, causing the other two to jump.

"Uh, T-Tails, I-I didn't-... I mean I don't think... I-I swear I..." Sonic stuttered, trying to find the right cover phrase. The fox was glaring at him over his shoulder, making him incredibly nervous.

"You think I'm going to become destructive? You actually _believe _that? Gee Sonic, I THOUGHT WE WERE FAMILY." He growled, sarcastically mocking the hedgehog's earlier statement and making the spiked mammal seem hypocritical. He started a growl deep in his throat, and turned around, teeth clenched. Sonic was thoroughly frightened, taking a few steps backward.

"Tails, I-I'm sorry! Please, just... I don't think that! I promise!" He said, his hands up in front of him. This was the first time that Tails had actually been angry at him, and he was scared half to death. All the other times, including the one that the fox had injured him, were all results of him trying to butt in while he was angry at someone else, but _this _time, _he _was the target. And he didn't know what to say to calm the kitsune down.

**"LIAR!" **Tails shouted in a gruff voice, stepping forward. The cobalt hedgehog responded by guarding his face with his arms. Knuckles intervened, stepping inbetween the angry kitsune and the frightened hedgehog.

"Tails, calm down. You know he's just worried about you, right? He doesn't think you'll actually turn out like that. In fact, he prays that you won't." The ruby echidna stated, crossing his arms, becoming a roadblock. The fox's angry expression lessened, and his body untensed, but he still looked irritated.

"Fine." The whitish vulpine spat, turning around and resuming his strut, his multiple appendages raised behind him and moving quite stiffly. Sonic walked behind Knuckles, seeking safety from his bulk. About fifteen minutes later, they were somewhere in the middle of the dirt road leading to their house, which was just a pathway cut into a forest, with trees and underbrush lining either side. They had finally stepped out of the water very recently, something Sonic was very eager to do, and were now walking on dry land. Tails's stress had drained out of him rather quickly, as it always had, and he was looking rather worried at the time. He slowed down to walk in-line with the other two mammals, and turned toward the cobalt hedgehog.

"Uh... Sonic?" He asked, an apologetic look on his face.

"Yeah?" The blue blur answered, looking up at the taller fox's muzzle.

"I...I'm sorry for snapping at you..." Sonic just smiled warmly.

"It's okay li'l bro, you were just frustrated about something, but you're nice and frosty now, right?" The kitsune nodded, smiling a little smile. Their house soon came into view from the slowly thinning fog, and they approached it, walking up the steps. Sonic opened the door, and they walked inside to see a completely dark house, nothing but pale light streaming in through the windows. A small clock on the wall ticked away, the digital display in the center showing the numbers 8:13. Tails flicked a switch, and the living room was flooded with a pleasant soft orangish light, making everything visible. He proceeded to strip himself, taking off his jacket first, then shirt and pants, having grown quite sick of them in the sticky fog. Knuckles pried off his shoes with a metal spatula, which looked quite hilarious to anyone nearby. Sonic didn't strip like everyone else, leaving his clothes on, which included a blue jacket with, ironically, a water design on it, and blue jeans. Team Sonic gathered on the purple couch again, the fox once again sitting in the middle and splitting his tails evenly on each side, wrapping them around his two friends.

"Man, Tails... Your tails are so soft... Like pillows, almost." Knuckles commented, causing the kitsune to blush slightly, grinning bashfully. The echidna picked up one of the appendages on his side and ran his fingers through it, admiring the results of the conditioner Tails had been using. He wrapped his tails further around Knuckles, making a small blanket of sorts around his torso, before picking up the remote control for the television in front of them. He pressed the power button, and switched to the News channel. There was a cover story about the flood, anchored by a young red raccoon in a beige tuxedo. He was standing in front of a TV screen showing the feed from one of the city's cameras, displaying the flood in all its... err... "Glory".

_**"As the river of water continues roaring down central station square, citizens have been told to stay indoors. Environmentalists are still investigating the cause of the flood."**_The Raccoon announced, holding a microphone close to his mouth. The TV behind him switched to a view of Superiority park, which was still a bowl of spiraling water, as the three mammals had seen before during their walk home. _**"Superiority park has become a whirlpool, and it is unknown whether it will drain soon or stay flooded for longer than the streets. It could possibly be converted into a community swimming pool." **_Sonic shuddered at the word "Pool", his irises shrinking and his ears lowering. He looked up at Tails, who simply patted his shoulder and told him to calm down.

"Speaking of pools, I think it's about time Sonic learned to swim. He's 26. He should have learned a _long _time ago." Knuckles said over the buzz of the news reporter, causing the cobalt hedgehog to look over his kitsune friend at the snickering echidna.

"W-what? Me? _Swim!_" The blue blur shouted in disbelief, placing both his hands on the fox's left thigh and leaning closer to the red mammal.

"Knuckles is right, Sonic, and I think we're going to teach you how to swim and overcome that silly fear of water that you have. _Tomorrow._" Sonic yelped in panic, turning his head upward to lay eyes on the kitsune who was looking down at him with a warm yet teasing smile.

"...Oh, I forgot to say, Jordan ran off the other day. No rhyme intended. Anyway, he just thanked us for our hospitality, and dashed off." Knuckles said after an initial sound of realization. Ohh, so THAT'S where he went. Tails hadn't thought about it until now, but he hasn't seen the lavender hedgehog for a while now. Eh, he's moved on to bigger and better things. Team Sonic continued to watch the newscast until it ended, which took about 45 minutes, at which point Sonic and Tails were fighting to stay awake, and Knuckles was already snoozing. The sun had disappeared below the horizon, so now the clouds and fog were dark and unlit, making it impossible to see outside. The fox turned off the television, and gently trotted on padded feet to his and Sonic's room, followed by the hedgehog moments later. Tails went ahead and stepped into the large shower, closing the sliding door behind him and turning on the hot water, which soon filled the bathroom with warm steam.

Sonic was sitting on the wooden chair that, for some reason, they kept in the bathroom, enjoying the water vapor. "I looooove steam..." He moaned pleasantly, causing the fox in the shower to audibly chuckle.

"You know that steam is just gaseous water, right?" Tails inquired, continuing to scrub himself.

"Well yeah, but you can't drown in it!"

"Good point." After the kitsune had finished scrubbing the shampoo throughout his whitish fur, he turned the crystal blue knob to the right slightly, increasing the water output to wash the suds out.

"Don't forget to wash your tails!" The hedgehog called, causing the vulpine in question to jump at the realization that he hadn't done so yet.

"Uh... I won't!" He lied, quickly grabbing the shampoo and squeezing a little more onto his backside. It was highly concentrated, like hotel shampoo, so just a few drops can make a mountain of suds. Expensive. But it wasn't hard to afford with all of Sonic's money. He grunted a few times as he reached around, trying to get a hold on his appendages, which was the absolute hardest part of showering for him due to how many there were. It wasn't really that difficult, just annoying and time-consuming.

"I know you don't like doing it, but ya' have to, just like you have to wash the rest of your body." Tails laughed quietly to himself under his breath. Sonic was always so understanding, no matter what the situation was. The hedgehog could read him like a book due to how long they've been together. Ten minutes after he was supposedly going to finish, he _finally _scrubbed the last bit of shampoo out of his last tail. He turned the crystal knob all the way to the left, stopping the water flow in its entirety. He pulled one of the hanging towels off the edge of the shower, and rubbed his figure with it until his fur was as dry as it could possibly get via a towel; damp. He slung the towel back over the shower wall and slid open the door, stepping out, his figure still holding quite a bit of water. He turned toward Sonic.

"Your turn!" The hedgehog hesitantly complied, taking off his shoes and socks before stepping into the shower himself. He didn't take nearly as long as the kitsune did. Lucky him, he didn't have eight long tails sprouting from his rear end. He dried himself with a different towel than Tails had used, before stepping out, his fur drier than the fox's due to it being shorter. They both exited the bathroom, Sonic flicking off the light switch, before climbing into their bed.

"Hey, Tails?"

"Yeah?"

"Amy told me that Rouge is coming back to Station Square." Tails was surprised. The jewel-loving bat hadn't been in Station Square for over six years, having gone to other countries to seek other treasures. She had to take a plane because not even she could fly five thousand continuous miles to America and back.

"She hasn't seen me since... well... since this started..." The hedgehog understood, coaxing the kitsune to continue. "I wonder if she'll be shocked or anything..."

"Oh don't be like that, Tails. She might not recognize you, sure, but you _do _look a lot different than when you were twelve. Older, larger, more masculine, and a different color, more tails... Uh... I-I'm sorry. Anyway, you can surprise her by playing a practical identity joke, if you want. Won't that be fun?" Tails chuckled to himself, thinking of all the ways he could act like someone else. He could act like he was attracted to her, just to see her reaction when Sonic blurts out "That's Tails, by the way."

"Yeah... I guess it will be..."

"Alright then, there's something to look forward to tomorrow. 'Night little bro."

"Goodnight, Sonic."

* * *

It was supposedly about seven o' clock in the morning when Sonic awoke, swinging his feet off the bed. He had convinced Tails to lay just a little farther away from him the night before, so that odd situation with his namesakes didn't happen again. He stretched and yawned, smoothing out his fur, ruffled from sleep.

"...S...Sonic?..." He heard the kitsune moan groggily, probably woken by the cobalt hedgehog's sudden movement to leave the bed. Tails was a bit of a light sleeper, always waking up when those around him did most of the time. Most of the time. The fox started to rustle in his position, getting out of the bed.

"Tails, you don't have to up when I do... just go back to sleep..." The blue blur said softly, smiling.

"...But... I have to go... to wo-"

"Nah, another text came from your boss saying that the workplace was still being fumigated." Sonic interrupted, pointing towards the red-and-black device sitting on the dresser on Tails's side of the bed. "Go back to sleep, you need it..." The vulpine simply blinked at him, although his eyes were mostly closed in the first place. The hedgehog layed his palms on the fox's shoulders.

"Tails, you need more sleep than I do. You're still a teenager, you need about 9 hours." The fox was about to say something, but was shushed by the spikeball. "And don't give me that, because I know you were up most of the night. You kinda kept me up with your whimpering. It's okay, just lie back down and sleep..." He sibilated, smiling, gently pushing his li'l bro back down onto the pillow. Tails had been lying awake in bed, probably worrying about his birthday once more, which kept the hedgehog up, although he never said anything. Upon seeing that the eight-tailed kitsune had relaxed, he turned around, walking as silently as he could out the door and to the couch, which no longer held Knuckles. He could smell steam, most likely from boiling water, coming from the kitchen. Knuckles was the earliest riser of the group, always getting up early to cook breakfast and such. As he predicted, when he walked into the kitchen, the echidna was up and cooking some sort of soup, wearing his favorite chef's hat.

"What's up, Knuckles?" The echidna, suddenly realizing he had company, turned around and smiled at the hedgehog.

"Did you just wake up? Knuckles asked, and the hedgehog nodded. "Where's Tails?"

"Tails is still sleeping. I told him to stay in bed to make up the sleepless hours he spent last night worrying about his birthday."

"Doesn't he have to go to work?" Le hotheaded chef had a curious expression on his face.

"Nah, his workplace is being fumigated." The cobalt hedgehog approached the echidna and peered into the rather large pot of boiling water. "What'cha making?"

"Just some ramen. I thought Tails would like it, 'cause he likes noodles and soup." The echidna put some spices into the water, turning it a pleasant delicious-looking yellow. "Maybe you should go wake him up so he can eat breakfast with us. You can just tell him to go to sleep afterwards, if you want." The hedgehog gave a small, worried sigh.

"Alright... I'll go get him..." He said, proceeding to trot back through the living room to their bed. The fox was apparently sound asleep once more, breathing quietly as he slumbered. Sonic smiled. He looked so cute when he was sleeping...

"Tails, you wanna eat breakfast with us? Knuckles is making ramen." The fox mumbled something, and sat up, squinting at his big brother. "Well?" The kitsune continued to look at the hedgehog.

"...Breakfast?..." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his arm. Sonic raised his eyebrows.

"It's okay, if you don't want to get up, you don't have to." The fox cleared his throat, and then proceeded to move the comforter off his body, his fur incredibly ruffled from his slumber. He lifted his feet over the edge of the bed, and set them on the soft carpet to the side. He stretched himself, bending over forwards and extending his arms, straightening his tails out behind him, a yawn escaping his throat. "Alright, I guess you're hungry. C'mon, Knuckles is almost done." He led the vulpine through the living room and to the kitchen, coaxing him to sit down at the table in the center.

"Morning Tails, I hope you like ramen!" The echidna was stirring the pot of noodle soup with an extra-long wooden spoon, which soon filled the air with the scent of chicken, which was exciting the young half-asleep canine currently sniffing the air. Not suprisingly, Knuckles extracted some defrosted chicken from the microwave and dumped the chopped pieces into the pot, continuing to stir it. The echidna smelled the fumes emanating from the soup.

"Ahh man Tails, you're gonna like this..." He moaned happily, shaking some more spices into the concoction.

"...It smells good..." The fox stated, still trying to wake up. Sonic and Knuckles chuckled brightly; Tails was back to his old cute self again. He turned his white muzzle toward Knuckles and his dish, continuing to sniff the air. Even though the kitsune was rather muscular, he still had a thin figure, so he wasn't large or anything. It was less like an MMA-fighter figure and more like a simply athletic figure.

"Is it almost done, Knux? Tails is getting antsy." Sonic asked, stroking his little brother's ears and causing him to purr happily.

"Yeah, it'll be done right about...Now!" Knuckles finished stirring the ramen and poured it into three medium-sized bowls that he had extracted from the cupboard moments ago. There was more than enough to fill all three, so he left the pot there in case anyone wanted seconds. He brought them to the table and sat down at it, inviting Sonic to sit down in the chair next to the hungry fox. They began eating, Sonic quickly slurping it up, Tails fumbling with the chopsticks, and the scarlet chef eating daintily at his own pace. The echidna swallowed, preparing to speak.

"Hey Sonic, you know how Tails is the only carnivore in our group? In fact, he's kinda higher on the food chain than most people we know. He could eat us all, starting with _you, _because foxes like to eat hedgehogs. Heh heh heh..." Knuckles said, chuckling evilly. The hedgehog quickly stopped eating, looking at the canine frightfully.

"...What?" The whitish kitsune inquired, leaning slightly closer to Sonic, who backed away in response. The scarlet echidna found this incredibly humorous, and laughed out loud, holding his stomach. Knuckles pushed it.

"You see those fangs? Yeah, those fangs could tear right through you, and I bet you would even taste delicious!" Sonic looked at the elongated canines in the fox's slightly opened mouth, and began whimpering softly, a mortified expression on his face. His ears drooped, and he backed away moreso from the kit.

"Sonic, I'm sure Knuckles is just joking. Why would I eat you?" Tails stated, extending a clawed hand to his big bro', who almost fell out of his chair trying to get up and away. The fox looked at his clawed fingertips. "Oh... Uh..." He retracted his hand and just looked at his big bro'.

"Ha hah!... AH hah hah... Y-yeah, Sonic, I'm just pulling your leg. That would fly in the face of Tails's good nature." Knuckles confirmed, which made the antsy hedgehog relax a little, and he exhaled loudly, sitting back in his chair but keeping an eye out for the fox. Said canine continued fumbling with his chopsticks, trying to figure out how to hold them in his clawed fingertips. When he found a suitable configuration, he started eating daintily, just like the echidna sitting to the right of him. All three mammals eventually finished their ramen, and Sonic's cell phone on the counter made a chiming noise. He quickly dashed over and picked it up, flipping it open to read a text message. He smiled, and looked at his two friends.

"Hey, Amy just texted me, she's at the airport waiting for Rouge." Knuckles absent-mindedly shouted "What!" at the hedgehog's comment, putting his hands on the table. Sonic grinned, sweatdropping. "Oh, sorry Knuckles, I forgot to tell you. Rouge is coming back to Station Square!" Knuckles was about to let out a scream of joy, but stopped upon the realization of something.

"Wait... I wonder if she'll recognize Tails..." The fox grinned uneasily at the comment, both pleased that the echidna cared about him, and slightly embarrassed. Sonic, however, thought it was hilarious for some reason.

"Oh don't worry Knuckles... Finish up your ramen Tails, we're gonna go meet up with Amy." The kitsune did so, and moved to his room to groom himself in the bathroom mirror alongside the hedgehog, before emerging into the living room to find Knuckles already prepared to leave. The cobalt hedgehog raised an eyebrow.

"How did you get ready so fast, Knux?" The echidna grinned.

"How is Tails so fuzzy?" The vulpine in question gave him a weird look.

"I just... am?" Knuckles laughed and opened the door, beckoning for the other two to exit.

* * *

Team Sonic bolted down the incredibly long dirt road to the airport, a road that was even longer than the road from Station Square to their house. Only this one was surrounded by lush green grassland, no tall trees to provide cool shade, and Tails was sweating from the heat his thick fur absorbed from the blazing sun. Sonic and Knuckles both had short fur, Sonic's being even shorter from the electrical incident with Tails's powers a few days earlier, so they never had problems like this. Of course, they were in the usual formation, Sonic on the left, Knuckles on the right, and Tails flying a couple feet off the ground in the middle.

"Hey Tails, the airport is on a beach, so if you're getting hot you can just take a dip in the ocean when we get there!" Sonic shouted over the wind, a phrase which immediately converted the fox's thoughts from the sun's heat to cool water. It was a little bit ironic how the hedgehog convinced other people to swim even though he couldn't himself. He really needs to learn, though. The kitsune smiled warmly at him from the side, adjusting his tails to lessen his height a little bit. It wasn't long before the airport rose over the horizon, and Sonic let out an excited "Woohoo!".

A pink hedgehog dressed in regular blue jeans and a white t-shirt sat down on a bench at Emerlyse Airport, waiting for flight 20; Rouge's flight, to land. She glanced at the ticking watch on her furred wrist. "15 minutes to go..." She absent-mindedly mumbled, adjusting her hair with one hand. Her quills had extended to quite a length over the years, to the point where they drooped past her shoulders, and she had always kept them decent to hopefully, one day, deter Sonic enough for him to admit his love for her. It's not like she didn't know about the blue spikeball's affinity for her. She was just trying to get him to admit it, since chasing him won't really work. She had texted Sonic just a few minutes ago, and taking his footspeed into account, he was probably almost here, with Tails and Knuckles by his side.

She looked around her, at all the passerbyers going to and fro. There was also really bad airport music playing over the intercom, something that did not please her. She was actually sitting near the front gate, keeping watch for a specific cloud of dust to come over the horizon. She got up from the bench and crossed her arms, tapping her foot impatiently, a behavior she had adopted from the blue blur himself quite a while ago. She didn't have time to tap for long, as the very thing she had been waiting for sped into view; Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. She suppressed her inner fangirl that wanted to squeal with joy at the sight of the cobalt hedgehog, and just watched with a smile as the two grounded mammals skid to a stop, the airborne fox coming to a windy halt.

"Nice skid mark, Sonic! That's gotta be at least thirty-two feet!" Knuckles complimented gleefully, looking at the hedgehog.

"Thanks, Knux! Oh, and hey Amy, what's up?" The tamarisk hedgehog looked at her watch in response. "It's only twelve minutes until Rouge's flight lands, we should head over to Gate 20 so we'll be there on time." She wagged her finger in the same fashion Sonic used to. "And no running inside the airport!" The spikey mammal laughed brightly, although he was obviously nervous by the way he was trembling. Heh, typical Sonic... Damn horomones, eh?

"Well, shall we go in?" Tails asked, pushing the hedgehog's back and forcing him to walk toward the door and Amy. The cobalt hedgehog tried to stop by skidding on his heels, but the vulpine's strength caused him to be pushed in a very cartoonish fashion in the direction of the pinker hedgehog. "You two should hold hands so you don't get lost..." The whitish kitsune said, giving a quick wink to both hedgehogs before walking into the rotary doors, his eight tails fluttering behind him. Amy grabbed Sonic's ungloved hand, and the shy spikeball reluctantly contorted his fingers around her hand as well. Sonic looked uneasy about this, for his thoughts were conflicting intensely. If he held her hand, it would be obvious that he loved her, but then again, he _had _always wanted to do this... He decided to just go with it, and his distraught face changed to a slight smile as he felt how warm and soft her hands were for the first time. They walked in alongside Knuckles, pushing the rotary door around with their free hands and entering the airport.

Sonic marveled at how massive it was, and how many people were walking around. But then he noticed that a good number of them were staring at Tails as they passed by. He released Amy's hand to walk up to the fox, seeing that he looked embarrassed. He tapped the vulpine on the shoulder to gain his attention. "It's alright Tails, what do they know? Just smile! If people see you're confident in yourself, they will respect you no matter how you look." He said reassuringly, but the eight-tailed kit gave him an unconfident look, his eyebrows arched. Knuckles walked up to the other side of the whitish kitsune, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Tails, I'll make a deal with ya'." Tails looked at him.

"A deal?"

"If you, say, spread out your tails in a fan shape for a bit, you know, _show them off_, I will MAKE Sonic learn how to swim." The vulpine gave him a look of disbelief.

"What? What do you mean "show them off"? I-I... I can't... I can't do... that... People w-will stare even m-more..." The young kit said softly, his tails drooping behind him. His tails were very long, longer than he was tall, so it would indeed attract attention.

"Sure you can, it'll help you get over this whole "I'm a freak" gig. You're not a freak, Tails, now prove it! Show 'em off!" The echidna cheered, but by now even Sonic was giving him a look of disbelief. "I bet if you make other people jealous, you'll feel _much _better about yourself. You've got something other people don't! You have every right to show off a little bit, don'tcha?" Tails was looking very unconfident at this time. "Just do it, and you can think 'Yeah, that's right. I've got more tails than you. I'm _awesome._'. C'mon, don't you wanna feel like that?"

"Wow Knux, that's the first time I've ever heard you give a speech... But that's ridiculous, Tails is already having problems blending in as it is, I don't think he needs to make himself stick out even mo-"

"Sonic..." The fox mumbled, interrupting his older brother. "...Knuckles is right... I... I need to get over this..." The whitish vulpine declared, giving an "I don't want to do this" expression to the hedgehog at his side. The hedgehog placed a hand on his little bro's shoulder.

"Tails... You don't have to do it now if you don't want to... We can wait until you're ready..." The cobalt spikeball sibilated, but the vulpine brushed his hand off, gazing into his emerald green eyes with his sapphire ones.

"No Sonic, I'm gonna do it right now... If they stare... It's _their _problem..." The two mammals stepped aside. The eight-tailed fox took a deep breath, before he fully extended his eight five-and-a-half foot long tails into a half-circle shape, attracting the attention of just about everyone around him. Oddly, no one was avoiding him, walking close if need be, and some possibly even for a closer look. It wasn't too obvious, but the kitsune was feeling _very _self-concious right now, as shown by the way he was looking back and forth at everyone.

"Smile, Tails. Show 'em you're confident." The hedgehog whispered into his ear. The whitish kitsune took his brother's advice and smiled confidently, surprised at this new feeling of significance... He always felt like he should shy away from the world, not be noticed, but right now, he... He felt so... Invincible! It was like no one had any psychological power over him anymore, no one could call him a freak and it be justified, No. One. Could. Touch. Him. His fake smile turned into a real one, and he looked at everyone with a "Yeah, so what?" attitude.

"You feel pretty awesome now, don'tcha buddy?" Knuckles asked, and the eight-tailed vulpine nodded happily, walking toward Amy.

"Wanna go, Amy?" The tamarisk hedgehog nodded happily, and she led the way. Team Sonic followed her through the airport, walking through the separate rooms that each held one landing gate, until they reached Gate 20, Rouge's flight. Tails was feeling slightly uncomfortable with several people walking by and touching his tails, probably seeing if they were real or not, and had already directed his appendages back behind him as to possibly minimize this. Of course, it wasn't quite working, as now people were approaching behind him to inspect his namesakes. A loud tone was heard on the intercom.

**"Customers, Flight 20 has now arrived. If you are waiting for someone or waiting to get on the plane, please head to Gate 20 straight away." **A calm female voice announced, but the group was already there. After a moment or two, various people streamed through the gate, spreading out to walk different directions. Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy were waiting near the gate, while Tails was examining the map on the other side of the room, a hand on his furred chin. Soon a particular bat walked through the gate in a pair of red jeans and a black tanktop, not exactly her usual spandex and... more spandex, and shouted gleefully upon sighting Amy, the two girls rushing to hug eachother. Rouge wasn't wearing her usual spying outfit because she had quit her job at G.U.N., wanting a more simple life, although she still occasionally went jewel-hunting.

"Hey Rouge! Long time no see!" Sonic greeted, extending a hand for a handshake. She shook it prominently with a smile.

"Hi Sonic, Hi Knuckles! Wow, you two sure do look different since last time I saw you." The white bat looked downward at Sonic. "And I don't remember you being so short, mister hedgehog." The cobalt spikeball glared at her in response, not liking to have his height insulted. The retired jewel-hunter looked around the airport, examining its vastness, before setting eyes on a certain whitish fox looking at the airport map. She smiled intriguingly.

"Heyyyy, who's that good-looking fox over there?" She cooed, pointing at him. "He looks so strong... And he's got a cute face, too!" Sonic burst out laughing, doubling over, much to the confusion of the white-furred bat. "What are you laughing at?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"R-Rouge, that's... That's..!... Ah HA HAH! Ah hah hah hah!" Sonic forced out amidst his laughter, taking great amusement out of the irony of the situation. He was right; Rouge DIDN'T recognize Tails. "Rouge... That... That's Tails! AH HAH HAH HAH!"

Rouge was too confused to speak for a moment, just standing there with her jaw open. "...Seriously? That's TAILS over there? How... When... What...?"

"Yup, that really is Tails over there. See how many tails he has?" Knuckles added, and the bat's confused expression melted back to a interested smile.

"Wow... He's sexy... REALLY sexy!... When did that happen?" Sonic eventually stopped laughing enough to speak clearly, and tapped the bat's shoulder to gain her attention. Tails's fur had also grown much longer over the years, causing tufts and drafts all over him, making him look incredibly soft and huggable, like a teddy bear.

"I don't really know... Heh... I honestly can't remember when he didn't have those muscles. It's almost like he's always had them." The cerulean spikeball admitted, chuckling to himself. "He's always been good with machines, and ever since he became a teenager, it's been making him stronger." Rouge turned her head to look at Knuckles.

"Hey Knuckles, there are some couples that are eight or nine years apart, right?" Sonic burst out laughing again, and Knuckles gave her a weird look.

"Wait... You're not actually thinking about... _that_... are you?" The scarlet echidna asked, receiving a sly "Mmmm hmmmmmm." from the bat. She proceeded to jog up behind the whitish kit, and then walked to his side, grabbing his upper arm to feel it. This attracted his attention, and he turned his head, staring blankly at her for a moment.

"...Oh hey Rouge! I guess your flight landed?" His eyes scanned up and down her figure. "You certainly look... different then when I last saw you." She gave a small "mm hmm" in response. His voice was much lower, but not by that much. He always had a light voice, so it was still pretty light.

"I should say the same about you, cutie. Been workin' out?" She moved herself closer to him, pushing her cheek against his. Tails, however, wasn't quite used to being advanced on, especially from one of his friends, and was looking a bit hesitant. He broke away from her, looking at her with a confused expression.

"What are you doing? Aren't we just friends?" The confused fox asked, but Rouge slowly walked to him, beckoning with her finger.

"Oh, we don't have to be 'just friends" if you don't want us to be..." She cooed, but her progress was halted by Sonic's arm. She turned her head to see the hedgehog staring at her with an eyebrow raised.

"Rouge, are you coming on to him? He's only seventeen!" Rouge put a hand on her chin, thinking.

"...But doesn't that mean he'll be eighteen in a couple days? Can't I legally marry him then?"

"..._Marry? _W-wait, I'm not r-ready for that!" Tails shouted, panicking. "I don't know anything about _commitment!_" Sonic scratched one of his ears to make him calm down, and his panicked expression slowly changed to a relaxed one as he leaned his head toward the hedgehog's hand.

"Yeah, he kinda does that when I scratch behind his ears. He's a canine, what did you expect?" Sonic said. "Anyway, what exactly are you doing? He's far younger than you!"

"Sigh, okay fine, I'll stop." Rouge complied, although she didn't quite agree with the hedgehog. Tails was attractive, and she didn't have a boyfriend for the majority of her trip, so she figured, why not? Tails, however, hadn't exactly had a girlfriend his entire life, so he absolutely did not know _anything _about relationships. Sonic stopped scratching his ear after a while, and his awareness returned, him looking about the airport once more. He noticed that Rouge was looking at him... quite low. He did a quick take downward, then gave the bat a weird look.

"...Are you staring at my groin?" Rouge's head snapped back up, and she shook her head vigorously. However, Sonic was not amused.

"Rouge!" The hedgehog yelled, angry at the retired jewel-hunter's, in his opinion, child-predatory actions. However, the fox was not a child anymore. But no matter how you slice it, it was still perverted. Obviously, Tails wasn't wearing any clothes, which was perfectly acceptable in Mobian society, but made them slightly more prone to embarassing "features".

Rouge upturned her hands and spread them to her sides. "What? I was curious." Sonic angrily stepped forward and poked the bat's nose.

"Listen Rouge, I will _not _have you going after my little bro' like that. He isn't old enough to have sex, and-"

"Isn't he almost eighteen though? Really, Sonic, you're being kind of overprotective of him. Your little bro is growing up, you need to give him _some _freedom." Rouge interrupted, taking the hedgehog's finger off her nose. Sonic hmphed and backed off.

"But really Tails, you need to start wearing pants at _all _times." The hedgehog lectured, pointing at the fox's lower body. Unlike most mobians, Tails hasn't had his fur trimmed in years. It was _very _long, maybe half a foot, and even moreso along his legs, so it sort of hid his maleness. But it was still going to cause problems with girls if he didn't wear pants.

"Fine, I'll get a pair when we get home..." Tails answered, looking at his legs.

"Oh, and, I forgot, I don't exactly have a place to stay... Can I just come live in your house?" Rouge asked, suddenly remembering her home was actually in a G.U.N. building, and she had quit her job there, so she didn't have a home. Sonic shrugged.

"Sure, I guess. C'mon, let's go, shall we?"

* * *

After a long and arduous run back to Station Square, during which Rouge was having trouble keeping up, the group stopped on the road from Station Square to their house for a rest. Sonic was sitting next to a tree, Tails had collapsed from overheat and was sprawled on the ground, Knuckles was munching on a leaf for some reason, and Amy and Rouge were chatting about girl stuff that none of the males understood.

"Water... I need water..." Tails mumbled, barely audible with his muzzle buried in the grass. Sonic simply stared at him for a moment, silent.

"Uh... Uhm... When we get back to the house you can jump in the pool, if you want? Eh heh heh heh..." The hedgehog said, a little bit too distracted at the thought of water to speak confidently. Tails lifted his face out of the grass, interested.

"We have a pool?" The cobalt hedgehog clapped both hands over his mouth. Oh, crap... The house they lived in had recently acquired a swimming pool, but it had a high-tech cover that kept it concealed, and only Sonic knew about it. It was being kept clean all this time by a filtration system, but they had never really used it. Sonic didn't want to be forced to get in the water and learn how to swim, so he never told anyone.

"No, nevermind, we don't, we _never _did, nope, certainly not, no way, seriously!" The aquaphobic hedgehog stuttered, grinning nervously.

Tails squinted at his big bro'. "Sonic, is there something you're not telling us?" The cerulean spikeball shook his head vigorously.

"Nuh-uh." He decided to try and change the topic. "Oh, Tails, we need to get your fur trimmed. I guarantee you you'll be less overheated during unseasonly weather if you do." The fox nodded, trailing off, but then snapped back to the previous topic.

"Sonic, DID we have a pool all this time? Why didn't you tell us? We could've been cooled off this entire time and-"

"W-what?" Knuckles interrupted, pushing his torso up with his arms. "We have a pool now?"

"Okay, okay! We _do _have a pool! We got it earlier this month, but I never told anyone because I didn't want to be forced to swim!" Sonic confessed, throwing his arms down. Tails was about to rant at the hedgehog for his adumbrative behaivor, but then realized something.

"Wait, Sonic... You don't remember anything about your parents, right?" The hedgehog gave him a weird look.

"Yeah, what of it?" He answered, changing positions to get closer to his foxy friend.

"Well, that might be the reason you can't swim." This caught everyone's attention, and they all looked at the eight-tailed kitsune. Sonic uttered a short "Huh?" and gave a confused expression, and Tails cleared his throat. "I think you might not be able to swim because of a repressed memory of your parents. Maybe say, they died in a water accident, whether it be a tsunami, drowning, or being pulled under by some predator. And now, every time you look at water, the memories partially come back, and you become too traumatized to swim in it." Everyone was left with widened eyes. Sonic had his jaw dropped.

"...S-seriously? Did... Did that really happen?" The hedgehog was beginning to look horrified, so Knuckles rubbed his back a little.

"Don't think about it too much, Sonic, although that's probably what happened. You were so traumatized from watching one or both of your parents drown that you could never, ever learn to-..." Sonic was looking at the ground with a saddened expression, taking shuddery breaths. Knuckles moved his head down to look up at the blue blur. "...You okay?"

"...Yeah, I-I'm fine. I'll be okay." The hedeghog said quietly, standing up. "Let's just go back to my house so we can try teaching me how to swim or something. Maybe I'll get over this that way." He got several "Okay"s, and they took off running again, reaching the house in just a few short minutes. Sonic led the group up to the patio, took the key out of the secret compartment in the wall, and stuck it in the door. He turned it clockwise, and heard a sharp "click", before pushing it open. The five mobians walked inside, Knuckles flipping on the light switch, and Tails closing the door. Rouge looked around the house with her hand on her chin.

"Huh. I remember this place being different... Oh well. Do you have a spare room?" She asked, turning to Sonic, who was the distinguishable owner of the house. The hedgehog grinned.

"Sure, just go down that hallway to your left, past the kitchen. Go past Knuckles's room, and there's like four unused rooms. Pick your favorite!" The white bat looked over to the corner where his and Tails's room was, pointing at it.

"Who's is that room?" She asked in a curious tone.

"Oh, that one's for me and Tails. It's bigger because we both share it." The hedgehog informed, smiling brightly.

"Uh, Alright then..." Rouge complied, walking down the specified hallway and choosing the room next to Knuckles's, opening the door and walking inside. The cobalt hedgehog chuckled and walked over to the couch, sitting on the usual left side and staring at the unactivated television screen. Rouge used to stop by his house every now and then, mainly on weekends, when she didn't have to work at G.U.N., but now she decided to be staying here. It wasn't a problem since there were many unowned rooms available, so Sonic was perfectly okay with it. Then again, it might be odd to have a female living in the same house as him, Tails, and Knuckles, and he began to worry when he remembered how Rouge was hitting up Tails earlier. They wouldn't do anything profane, would they? He hoped not. He picked up the remote control, and was about to turn on the TV, his thumb hovering over the big red button labeled POWER on the upper-right of the remote.

"...Sonic?" He heard Tails utter, and he turned his head to look over the couch at the kitsune. He was looking at his right hand, which appeared to be entirely on fire, except it didn't appear to be burning his fur. "...What's going on?..." He asked softly, turning his hand about to get a better look at the blaze. Knuckles was gawking at the fox, and he turned his head to look at the fire extinguisher on the wall next to the kitchen entrance.

"Uh, Tails? Should I get the fire extinguisher?" The scarlet echidna asked, not knowing whether to just dismiss the fire as one of Tails's powers or to put it out. The only fire extinguishers Sonic kept in main rooms were type A pressurized water extinguishers, so they wouldn't slime up the room if they were ever needed. The incandescence on the fox's hand was spreading up his arm, beginning its journey to potentially cover his entire body.

"... I don't know, Knuckles. It doesn't hurt or anything... W-wait, why won't it stop? Sonic?" The hedgehog swung himself over the couch to approach the whitish vulpine. He quickly grabbed his little bro's arm, expecting to get burnt, but surprised to find that the flame was lukewarm. It didn't hurt... Not at all... Well, so to speak, it wasn't hurting his _flesh_. His glove was getting cooked. The fox looked at the hedgehog with a panicked expression, his eyes occasionally switching between his brother's face and his blazing arm. Sonic took off his hand, watching his glove turn into ashes before the flame vanished along with its fuel. He walked behind the kitsune to get a better look at him, seeing that there was a pathway of luminescence streaming from the base of his spine to his arm, probably his "chakra" or whatever it was called. "Sonic! How do I stop this?" The fox yelled, looking over his shoulder.

"I-I don't know! Can't you just put it out with your mind or something?" He replied, and Tails apparently got the message. The eight-tailed kit concentrated on calming the chakra, which successfully put out the flame, revealing glowing fur where the flame was. He then tried to push the energy back into his tails, finding that he couldn't; it was too painful to do so. Knuckles was leaning a little too close to the teenager, inspecting him.

"Now his _arm _is glowing? I thought that was just supposed to be his tails! What _is _going on?" The knuckleheaded echidna asked, wondering exactly what was happening to his foxy friend. Tails looked at Sonic with a slightly daunted look, his ears drooping.

"I...I can't push it back into my tails... It hurts too much... It's like it won't fit... What's happening?..." The almost-white kitsune asked, a frightened tone lining his voice. He looked at his side, finding that the stream of chakra had widened, covering most of his back. Sonic scratched one of his ears, causing him to calm down.

"It's okay Tails, I don't think you can stop this, so just let it happen... It's not like it will do anything, besides, erm, make you glow. But that's probably it. Just stay calm li'l bro. Now, how about we open up the pool and-..." Sonic's sympathetic expression changed to a nervous one. "...Teach me... how to swim?" Knuckles completely forgot about the initial situation and starting chuckling.

"Oh, MAN this is gonna be fun!" He shouted gleefully, grabbing Sonic's arm and pulling him down the west hallway. "C'mon Tails!" The fox's mood brightened, and he joyfully followed, the two reaching the door at the end of the hallway quite quickly. It was a glass door with a single metal bar across it, used to push the door open, so you could clearly see the grassy backyard through the door. Knuckles pushed it open, and the three exited into the backyard.

_**To be continued...

* * *

**_

**Me: Okay, that wasn't exactly an end-of-chapter sentence, but I think it's fine. Besides, you all get to read it now! :D A good twelve widescreen pages of White goodness!**

**Sonic: ...So what did you mean when you said you wanted to do a TailsxRouge "Lemon-that-never-happened" in a seperate story?**

**Me: SSH! They don't need to know that. :I**

**Sonic: It takes place in the White universe, right?**

**Me: Stop talking about-... Okay fine, yes. -.- Actually, I thought you'd be more offended by that.**

**Sonic: Hey, it never happened, I don't have any gripes. Besides, it might be interesting to see how you portray Tails "getting into it".**

**Me: :X I've never written a lemon before. Well anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. :D From the violent scene at the beginning to the "Chakra" scene at the end. IF you're lucky, I'll get another chapter out by the end of the summer.**

**Sonic: And if you want Sparkz to go through with that lemon-that-never-happened, by all means, let him know! He already has an idea for it.**

**(Tails walks in)**

**Tails: Lemon? What lemon?**

**Me and Sonic: Nothing! :X**


End file.
